Black Lives Matter is getting some professors to rethink works they had previously defended
Tag Archives: Joseph Conrad
Black Lives Matter Changes the Canon
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Dante, Harold Bloom, Heart of Darkness, Homer, literary canon, Shakespeare, Virgil Comments closed
Achebe vs. Trump’s Heart of Darkness
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, Heart of Darkness, Minneapolis riots, racism, riots, Things Fall Apart Comments closed
Conrad and White Male Panic
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, Heart of Darkness, Marxism, white terrorism Comments closed
The World’s White Heart of Darkness
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, Heart of Darkness, white terrorism Comments closed
My “Last Lecture”
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, Heart of Darkness, Horace, Huckleberry Finn, integration, Jane Austen, 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
What Would Lord Jim Do?
Trump and the NRA call for heroes with guns to save us from mass shootings. Conrad’s “Lord Jim” shows us what happens when fantasies encounter reality.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Lord Jim, mass shooting, Parkland Florida shooting Comments closed
Trump in Chaucer, Shakespeare & Conrad
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, Heart of Darkness, Kim Jong-un, King Lear, Wife of Bath, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Reading Lit To Find the Meaning of Life
Paul Kalinithi moves between neuroscience and literature as he tries to understand the meaning of life and death, including his own terminal disease.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged meaning of life, Paul Kalinithi, T. S. Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, Waste Land, When Breath Becomes Air Comments closed
Conrad: Terrorism Not as Clear as It Looks
We all think we know what went on with the killings in Charleston, Colorado Springs, and San Bernardino because they fit easy narratives. Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Agent” should make us wary about jumping to conclusions.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Media, Planned Parenthood mass shooting, San Bernadino killings, Secret Agent, Terrorism Comments closed
