(Anti-) Racist Narrative in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: A Deconstructive Reading of the Mistress and the Intended

This paper intends to scrutinize the mistress and the intended in Heart of Darkness to discover (۱) whether the intentional ambiguity in the text of Heart of Darkness bears traces of dehumanization of the indigenous people, and (۲) whether either the intended or the mistress is glorified over one another. Dehumanization and its three metaphoric demonstrations are explained first. Then, by deconstructing the text a detailed study of the semiotics is conducted in order to discover and evaluate the connotations of descriptive words. The result of the paper clarifies how dehumanization is manifested in Heart of Darkness. Furthermore, it proves that neither the mistress is glorified over the intended, nor vice versa. This study is significant because it provides a good source of analysis for post-Colonialism.

کلیدواژه ها:

Joseph Conrad ، Heart of Darkness ، Racism ، Deconstruction ، Dehumanization ، Animalistic Dehumanization ، Savagery Dehumanization