Tag Archives: Heart of Darkness

Achebe vs. Trump’s Heart of Darkness

By Robin Bates | Published: June 2, 2020

50 years ago, black protesters would have been seen as Conrad sees Africans in “Heart of Darkness,” an undifferentiated mass. Achebe helped change that.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Chinua Achebe, Colonialism, George Floyd, Joseph Conrad, Minneapolis riots, racism, riots, Things Fall Apart | Comments closed

Conrad and White Male Panic

By Robin Bates | Published: March 18, 2019

Tuesday This is a follow-up to yesterday’s post about how Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness provides special insight into white terrorism. At one point I mentioned Conrad’s own racism and sexism, which leads to an interesting literary question: can we consider a work a literary masterpiece if it has one-dimensional depictions of women and Africans? […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Colonialism, Feminism, Joseph Conrad, Marxism, white terrorism | Comments closed

The World’s White Heart of Darkness

By Robin Bates | Published: March 17, 2019

Monday The rise of white terrorism around the world is leading liberals like me to question some of our basic assumptions. Are our democratic institutions, which we took for granted, strong enough to withstand the murderous resentment of entitled people who feel threatened? Amongst the entitled I include both those wealthy individuals who countenance violence […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged authoritarianism, Donald Trump, Joseph Conrad, white terrorism | Comments closed

My “Last Lecture”

By Robin Bates | Published: April 16, 2018

I share here my “last lecture” from my retirement ceremony. (But rest assured: I will not be retiring from this blog.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aristotle, Bertolt Brecht, Chinua Achebe, Divine Comedy, Goethe, Horace, Huckleberry Finn, integration, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, Martha Nussbaum Wayne Booth, Matthew Arnold, Percy Shelley, Plato, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Samuel Johnson, segregation, Sir Philip Sydney, Terry Eagleton, W. E. B. Du Bois, Wayne Booth | Comments closed

Trump in Chaucer, Shakespeare & Conrad

By Robin Bates | Published: September 24, 2017

When compared to people called “dotard” in Chaucer and Shakespeare, Trump fits the insult hurled at him by Kim Jong-un. His statement to African leaders, meanwhile, makes him sound like a “Heart of Darkness” ivory trader.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Africa, Capitalism, Donald Trump, Geoffrey Chaucer, Joseph Conrad, Kim Jong-un, King Lear, Wife of Bath, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Speaker Paul Ryan in Literature

By Robin Bates | Published: November 4, 2015

I’ve written a lot about Paul Ryan and his aspiration to be a John Galt figure. Now that he is Speaker of the House, I review other literary parallels I’ve drawn over the years.