IDENTITY, POWER, AND COLONIAL DISCOURSE IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S HEART OF DARKNESS

Abstract

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness occupies a controversial but important position in English literary studies. The novella explores European imperialism in Africa through the journey of Charles Marlow into the Congo and his encounter with Kurtz. This article analyses the relationship between colonial discourse, identity, power, and moral corruption in the text. The study uses close reading, postcolonial criticism, and discourse analysis. Particular attention is paid to the ideological contradiction between the claimed civilizing mission of European imperialism and the violence represented in the narrative. The findings show that Conrad exposes the economic exploitation and moral hypocrisy of colonial power, while at the same time reproducing certain Eurocentric representations of Africa. This contradiction has generated one of the most influential debates in twentieth-century literary criticism, especially through Chinua Achebe’s critique of Conrad. The article concludes that Heart of Darkness should be studied both as a critique of imperialism and as a historically situated text whose narrative strategies reveal the limitations of European colonial discourse.