I my recent bout with Covid, passages from “Heart of Darkness” and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” came to mind.
Tag Archives: Joseph Conrad
Sickness Strikes Again
Freud: Lit Leads to Self Mastery
A Freudian analysis of why we are drawn to literature and what it does for us.
“Citizen Kane” Foretells Trump
“Citizen Kane” is Trump’s favorite movie. It matches up only too well with his presidency.
Heart of Darkness as Military Manual
According to this military officer, “Heart of Darkness” provides a warning about what ill-conceived military incursions can do to servicemen and women.
Black Lives Matter Changes the Canon
Black Lives Matter is getting some professors to rethink works they had previously defended
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.
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? […]
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 […]

