NEGOTIATION OF COLONIAL AND POST COLONIAL BORDERS IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S HEART OF DARKNESS

Abstract

The current study aims at exploring colonial and post-colonial borders in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and demonstrating the representation and deconstruction of the colonial images of indigenous African masses. The purpose of the study is to show that the text negotiates colonial as well as post-colonial borders. It is argued that while deconstructing colonial imperialism, Joseph Conrad has explicitly raised his voice against the exploitation of the native Africans and thus evoked a post-colonial perspective in the high time of colonialism. Studying the novel wearing a colonial/post-colonial lens demonstrates that Conrad has produced an anti-racist and anti-colonial narrative that denounces inhuman treatment of the native subjected people and claims justice for them. This qualitative study carried out the analysis of the novel using content analysis and thick descriptive method to address the research questions. The present study carried out wearing the lens of postcolonial theory explores the colonial and postcolonial dimensions of Heart of Darkness to analyze how the novel written in the high time of colonialism had postcolonial elements in it. It is found that the novel negotiates the borders of colonialism and post-colonialism simultaneously.