Sammendrag
Abstract In the following thesis I intend to discuss the two distinct yet related forms of voyage at work in Conrad’s novella. This journey into Dark Africa, I will argue, has both a geographical and a psychological dimension. Taking into account the ideology that informs nineteenth-century imperialist discourse, as well as its subversive counterpart, verbalized in the sombre reflections of Charlie Marlow, I will look at some of the most salient implications these monologic vocal modes bear on the dichotomy of Self and Other. Having presented the polyphonic and at times cacophonic set of discursive narratives that operate in the novel, be it Kurtz’ voice, the screeching of the steamship, or the whisper of the jungle, I will argue that a process of double colonization is at work, whereby the colonizer is in turn colonized by the environment, becoming the host of the very darkness he seeks to enlighten. My analysis will ultimately lead me to the assertion that the notions of geography and madness, as thematized in the novelistic universe, play a central role in the construction (and destruction) of Self and Other. Due to the nature of this reciprocal relation, I have chosen to read the text through the lens of psychoanalytic and postcolonial theory, drawing on the works of Carl Jung, Susan Rowland, Rinda West, Johannes Fabian, Michel Foucault, George Fredrickson, and Michael Adas.