Achebe’s weakest link: an analysis

• Authors: Aaron Records
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, states in an interview that Joseph Conrad ensconces racism in his adjective-ridden writing style. More than that, Achebe even states that Conrad intentionally tries to confuse his readers so that they do not detect his racism. Arguments of intention are dangerous, especially when the author that is subjected to one is deceased. They cannot defend themselves. In order to see if Achebe’s claim of hidden racism in Heart of Darkness is true or not, I have read two other works by Conrad, The Secret Sharer and The Shadow Line: A Confession, and compared their writing. Using more analyses of Conrad’s works, I discover that Conrad is not too confusing for his readers; most people understand him. However, I notice that Heart of Darkness is written in a more confusing style. Adding Conrad’s philosophy and reviewing it with Nietzsche’s philosophy, we see that Conrad doesn’t seem like someone who would try to be racist and then hide it. The argument of intention would also seem to have an air of arrogance, as it appears Achebe thinks other readers are unable to comprehend Conrad’s text the way he can, or at least without his guidance. In conclusion, I surmise that arguments of intention are dangerous and that no one should make them because they are largely insupportable. If anything, an argument of intention has all the qualities of prejudice and once investigated, seems just as absurd as arguments for racism.

Keywords

PL

Africa, arguments of intention, Chinua Achebe, comparison, Conrad’s style, cryptoracism, Heart of Darkness, intention, Joseph Conrad, Nietzsche, prejudice, racism, syntax, The Secret Sharer, The Shadow Line

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Yearbook of Conrad Studies
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 7

Dates

published

2012

online

2013-01-14

Contributors

author

Aaron Records