Interrogates the "writing back to the center" approach to intertextuality and explores alternatives to it.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

For one hundred years, Heart of Darkness has been among the most widely read and taught novels in the English language. Hailed as an incisive indictment of European imperialism in Africa upon its publication in 1899, more recently it has been repeatedly denounced as racist and imperialist. Peter Firchow counters these claims, and his carefully argued response allows the charges of Conrad's alleged bias to be evaluated as objectively as possible. He begins by contrasting the meanings of race, racism, and imperialism in Conrad's day to those of our own time. Firchow then argues that Heart of Darkness is a novel rather than a sociological treatise; only in relation to its aesthetic significance can real social and intellectual-historical meaning be established. Envisioning Africa responds in detail to negative interpretations of the novel by revealing what they distort, misconstrue, or fail to take into account. Firchow uses a framework of imagology to examine how national, ethnic, and racial images are portrayed in the text, differentiating the idea of a national stereotype from that of national character. He believes that what Conrad saw personally in Africa should not be confused with the Africa he describes in the novel; Heart of Darkness is instead an envisioning and a revisioning of Conrad's experiences in the medium of fiction.

Published in 1902, Heart of Darkness is a well-known novella by Polish writer Joseph Conrad. Before its publication, it was featured in a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899. The story features Charles Marlow, who accepts an assignment from a Belgian trading company to captain a riverboat in Africa transporting ivory. The book explores three levels of darkness - wilderness, slavery, humanity - through the eyes of this unsuspecting trader. Heart of Darkness is a symbolic frame narrative, and one of the best-loved novels of the Victorian era. Literary students and history lovers alike will adore this classic piece of literature. JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924) was a Polish author who wrote in English. Conrad was born in what is now Berdychiv, Ukraine, to a Polish noble family. After his parents' deaths in 1869, Conrad was placed in the care of his uncle, who let him become a seaman at 16. During this period of his life, Conrad experienced harrowing adventures that formed the basis for many of his books. After abandoning sea life at 36 and settling down in England, Conrad authored 19 novels and several short stories and essays. His most well-known works include Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, Victory, Almayer's Folly, and Lord Jim.

Edward W. Said locates Joseph Conrad's fear of personal disintegration in his constant re-narration of the past. Using the author's personal letters as a guide to understanding his fiction, Said draws an important parallel between Conrad's view of his own life and the manner and form of his stories. The critic also argues that the author, who set his fiction in exotic locations like East Asia and Africa, projects political dimensions in his work that mirror a colonialist preoccupation with "civilizing" native peoples. Said then suggests that this dimension should be considered when reading all of Western literature. First published in 1966, Said's critique of the Western self's struggle with modernity signaled the beginnings of his groundbreaking work, Orientalism, and remains a cornerstone of postcolonial studies today.

"How Conrad's imperial horror story Heart of Darkness resonates with our globalized times." - The conversation Heart of Darkness is a short novel by Polish novelist Joseph Conrad, written as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow's experience as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa. The river is "a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land". In the course of his travel in central Africa, Marlow becomes obsessed with Mr. Kurtz. The story is a complex exploration of the attitudes people hold on what constitutes a barbarian versus a civilized societyand the attitudes on colonialism and racism that were part and parcel of European imperialism. Originally published as a three-part serial story, in Blackwood's Magazine, the novella Heart of Darkness has been variously published and translated into many languages. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Heart of Darkness as the sixty-seventh of the hundred best novels in English of the twentieth century. Joseph Conrad has written two of the most chilling, disturbing, and noteworthy pieces of fiction of the twentieth century.

“Not only a triumph of graphic art but a compelling work of literary interpretation.” —Maya Jasanoff, from the foreword Acclaimed illustrator Peter Kuper delivers a visually immersive and profound adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s enduring classic.