Darkness: Joseph Conrad and Harriet Beecher Stowe

Abstract

The article focusses on a multi-aspect comparative analysis of J. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and H. B. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Taking into account the obvious differences between the works, the author analyses the hell of slavery and exploitation of Africa by the colonial states that built systems that created criminals such as Kurtz and Legree. The author presents the genealogy of Conrad’s image of tortured Africa, the prefiguration of which is found in Polish romantic messianism. The article also presents a similar reception of both works. First, they gained recognition, then in the postwar period, they were criticized for the forms of racism hidden in them, and finally, in recent decades, they have been rehabilitated by new readings. The perspective presented here shows how women’s popular prose covertly influenced Conrad’s intertextual tendency, both his poetics and the worldview of his prose.