Letteratura inglese 1 - Appunti

EVOLUTION, ECOLOGY AND IMPERIALISM

➔ anxiety over the reincorporation of the self into nature: Kurtz goes mad (CRISIS FROM

DECENTRING OF MAN) ­­­C Copernican Revolution: earth is not in the center> crisis

from decentric of earth

➔ Conrad is aware of the misuse of evolutionary theory as an excuse for exploration of A

(1st misinterpretation of evol. theory) *notice several comments in the novel to

understand it*

➔ during Conrad’s period: “beginning” of env and animalist movements

➔ realisation that humanity is not separated from nature: idea that humans are at the

amplex (2nd misinterpretation of the evol. theory) *notice several comments in the novel

to understand it*

IVORY

→ symbol for the commodification (monetizzazione) of the African ecology

→ whispered, in the air

→ view of A as something with monetary value

→ quote “Ivory? I should think so. Heaps of it, stacks of it. The old mud shanty was bursting with

it. You would think there was not a single tusk left either above or below the ground in the whole

country”

→ from elephant severed tusk (zanna)= hunter’s trophy

*remember tusks of elephant out of Kurtz’s house→ after Kurtz realized he is part of and not

superior to wilderness he surrounds himself with symbols (like tusks) to keep his illusion of

superiority*

→ after several elephant tusks (symbol of ANTHROPOCENTRISM), Marlow sees human heads

(sym. of EUROCENTRISM)

→ Kurz is obsessed of ivory because it is the only thing he can use to try and assert his 19

LETTERATURA INGLESE 1 (ADAMI) ­ CASARIN GIACOMO

superiority

QUOTES

1) “These round knobs were not ornamental but symbolic; they were expressive and puzzling,

striking and disturbing— food for thought and also for vultures”

Marlow sees heads and understands they are not a decoration but a symbol > “food for

thoughts” (something to think on) for humans BUT for nature (especially for vultures) are just

food > what we give such importance (human brain) for nature is just meat

2) “the wilderness [...] had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things

of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude—and the whisper had

proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core….”

The wilderness speaks to Kurtz saying things he doesn’t want to hear > Kurtz is empty inside so

it produces an echo (perhaps we are just part of the food chain)

COMMENTS ON THE REPRESENTATION OF NATURE

❖ HD full of ivory but.. WHERE ARE ELEPHANTS?? → “reading of not said”

­interpretation 1 (Achebe) > Conrad is anthropocentric and shows his ideas through characters

­int 2 (other critics) > Conrad wants to criticize this ideology using irony, he is against the

position of his characters

❖ Trees (a solid, undifferentiated mass / always “trees”, not different types or different

characteristics) and Wilderness (not animals+plants+river+hills)

­int 1 > Conrad doesn’t care

­int 2 > Conrad is criticizing the colonizers’ perspective

❖ Kurtz’s mistress: embodiment of wilderness, the body of nature into which K had been

incorporated

> she is Kurtz’s lover in A.

> she is triply “other” (idea of wilderness taking Kurtz)

1 woman

2 african

3 nature

NARRATOLOGICAL ANALYSIS ­the language of fiction, Montini­

● based on structuralist (focus on structure) and formalist (focus on form) backgrounds

● based on narrative structures: 20

LETTERATURA INGLESE 1 (ADAMI) ­ CASARIN GIACOMO

1. TIME

2. SPACE

3. PERSPECTIVE

1. ANALYSIS OF TIME

★ story (fabula) and plot (intreccio)

★ ORDER > ANACHRONY= analepsis (flashback) and prolepsis (flashforward); story ≠

plot

★ DURATION > ANISOCHRONIES (in rhythm: 20 years in a page, 1 day in 50).

Types:

1) DESCRIPTION: stop of the story time (TS) but continuous of plot time (TR) → ST<PT

(TS<TR)

2) SCENE: story=plot

3) SUMMARY: lot of events in few pages → ST>PT (TS>TR)

4) ELLIPSIS: skip a passage, related to flashback and flash forwards; opposite of description

2. ANALYSIS OF NARRATOR

REAL AUTHOR (Conrad) → IMPLIED AUTHOR (our idea of Conrad) → NARRATOR (unnamed

narrator+Marlow); who’s telling the story, an imagining entity created by the author →

NARRATEE (who’s listening to the story, who the narrator speaks to: for Marlow=people on the

boat, for unnamed narrator= repeating us Marlow’s story) → IMPLIED READER (who the author

was thinking on as reader) → REAL READERS (me, reading it right now)

➢ 1st or 3rd person narrator

➢ limited or omniscient (just for 3rd person, 1st il limited to one’s perspective)

➢ obtrusive or unobtrusive (comments or not the story, 4 exp Manzoni comments)

➢ extradiegetic or intradiegetic (out or in the story) (exp: Marlow is intra, unnamed narrator

is intra referring to the story on river Thames but extra referring to that on river Congo)

➢ heterodiegetic or homodiegetic (take or not part in the story, is or not one of the

characters) + (autodiegetic=part in the story as 1st character)

➢ internal (pov of one character)/external focalization > same thing but is focussed on the

pov

FRAMED NARRATIVE

❖ story within a story (frame and embedded, on primary and secondary) > primary refers to

the story coming first, usually the frame comes first. *HD: primary=frame=story on r.

Thames, secondary=framed= story on r. Congo* NOTICE how the secondary is usually

the most important

❖ meta­narrative (classification by Genette) > a story within a story

❖ draws attention to the limited pov > reminds us it’s fiction

❖ puts distance between reader and narrator 21

LETTERATURA INGLESE 1 (ADAMI) ­ CASARIN GIACOMO

❖ frame narrative can be:

1) SINGLE­ENDED (the frame only appears at the beginning, it does NOT come at the end)

or DOUBLE­ENDED (frame at the beginning and the end)

2) INTRUSIVE (frame comes back during the narration)

or NON INTRUSIVE (it doesn’t happen)

HD AS AN EMBEDDED NARRATIVE

★ sailors on a ship telling yarns / Marlow tells his story

★ double­ended

★ intrusive frame: “Of course..you fellows see more than I could see then. You see me,

when you know..” > alienation device, breaks the spell of narrative calling us to “reality”

(=other fiction)

★ use of inverted commas

★ unnamed listener, narrator of the frame “I listened, I listened on the watch for the

sentence, for the word, that would give me the clue to the faint uneasiness inspired by

this narrative” > he’s trying to interpret the story, seems to be speaking for the reader

(position of narratee), we should find the moral of the story

GENERAL PLOT

1. a night on a ship in the mouth of river Thames

2. Marlow narrates his journey up to the Congo river

3. “white sepulcher” > Brussels (seat of the company)

4. Marlow at the head office of the Company; doctor’s visit

5. Outer station, hikes (goes on foot) to CS where he should find the boat

6. the boat is broken > waits weeks/months till is repaired

7. dense jungle, fog, natives’ attack (nature seems to be more friendly with natives) >

FOCUS on the way in which M. stops the attack (blows a whistle, seen as a supernatural

force by natives)

8. IS: Russian trader (dressed as an arlechin) seems to be in love with Kurtz 22

LETTERATURA INGLESE 1 (ADAMI) ­ CASARIN GIACOMO

9. Kurtz is not as expected: he’s evil and mad

10. “the horror, the horror”

11. M back to Europe (notice the circular travel E­C­E) > even here K is seen as great in

many different ways

12. on the ship in the river Thames, Marlow falls silent and the narrator stares out of the ship

and sees: “the heart of an immense darkness” ► real HD is in Europe!!

CHARACTERS

1) narrator of the frame narrative: one of the fire men on the ship with Marlow. He listens to

Marlow’s story ► reflective, seems to understand M, seems to be involved in the story,

not clear personality, our guide through the story

2) Marlow: intra­homodiegetic narrator of the embedded narrative; tells the story of his own

journey ► complex, philosophical, thinks a lot

3) Kurtz: talented and ambitious man who has abandoned his philanthropic ideas and set

himself up as a god to the natives at the inner station ► we know him through other

people, he has become evil

4) Chief accountant (OS) ► image which the company wants to give, apparence

5) General Manager (CS) ► deeper into A. = less apparence, not intelligent

6) Russian Trader (IS) ► seems in love with K

ANALYSIS OF PART I

➔ frame: narrator / Marlow

➔ imperialism as a glorious enterprise (apparence)

➔ Marlow sets himself apart from the others (he is different from the mass now)

➔ irony ► the audience’s thoughts might be wrong

➔ Belgian Company (rather than British) ► distance from Britain, gives critic tools to reader

(even if they are English)

➔ Brussels as a “white sepulchre” ► white vs darkness, sepulchre= symbol of death

➔ role of women

1. Marlow’s aunt

2. two women weaving black wool

3. Kurtz’s fiancè (white, pure, represents K’s connection to reality) vs K’s mistress

(wilderness, powerful, physical, represents K’s madness)

➔ Marlow reaches the OS: chief accountant first mentions Mr. K (now not so important to

M)

➔ caravan journey to the CS (not so much focus on it, it lasts a few weeks but is narrated

very shortly)

➔ starting to get closer to Kurtz: M sees an oil painting of him

➔ M reveals his philosophy: he hates lies and wants the truth (notice how, as a circle, the

theme comes back at the end of the novel with K’s fiancè)

➔ “Do you see him? Do you see the story?” ► M pauses the narration and says he’s trying

to express what he lived but it’s hard to do it well (crisis of language) ► that’s the first

come back to reality, the other on the ship are waiting 4 explanation to understand M

23

LETTERATURA INGLESE 1 (ADAMI) ­ CASARIN GIACOMO

(IMPORTANT 4 narratological pov)

ANALYSIS OF PART II

➔ incompetence and laziness of the Company’s employees ► he needs materials to repair

the boat

➔ Marlow changed his reason 4 travelling ► now is K’s meeting

➔ start of the river trip (journey upriver) towards Kurtz

► he is surrounded by wilderness and starts to know real nature

► natives on the boat: M starts to realize they’re not inhuman (produces fear, is not normal to

him) > “this suspicion of their not being inhuman”

➔ mor