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Into the Heart of the Colonial Mind: Analyzing the Representation of Colonizers in Two Graphic Adaptations of Jospeh Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Delhaye, Manon
(2020)

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Delhaye_1131-18-00_2019-2020.pdf
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Details

Supervisors
Bragard, Véronique
Faculty
Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres
Degree label
Master [120] en langues et lettres modernes, orientation germaniques
Abstract
The colonial past is a delicate issue in Belgium and yet it is more and more discussed and questioned nowadays. In literature, one of the most important fictions about the Belgian occupation in the Congo under the reign of Leopold II is Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1902). The present dissertation focuses on two postcolonial graphic adaptations of Conrad's novella, namely Heart of Darkness by Catherine Anyango and David Mairowitz (2010) and Au coeur des ténèbres: Librement adapté du roman de Joseph Conrad by Loïc Godart and Stéphane Miquel (2013). This dissertation aims to analyze colonialism's functioning and therefore focuses on the representation of the colonizers' mental states in these two graphic adaptations of Heart of Darkness. A categorization of the different colonizers is elaborated in this dissertation and follows Albert Memmi's typology of colonizers in his book Portrait du colonisateur (1957). The analysis is divided in two main parts, one that focuses on the representation of the colonizers' immoral behvior and another one that highlights the evolution from an ordinary man to a complicit and responsible colonizer. This part examines the protagonist of the story, namely Charles Marlow. While Conrad's text is ambivalent, the two graphic adaptations display critical and postcolonial interpretations of the story by means of meaningful graphic and non-graphic aspects. The two graphic adaptations not only invite the reader to engage with atrocities committed in the past, but they also suggest to deal with current violent acts taking place in today's Congo and worldwide.