Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. Vol. 1. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 24)

Tibor Tóth: Conrad's 'Secret Garden'

Congo journey he remarks: "It was not my strength that wanted nursing, it was my imagination that wanted soothing."

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4 Against this socio-historical background, Kurtz's story is a journey into the depths of man's unconscious, revealed against the darkness generated by colonialism. The public theme and the personal theme are linked, and it is the public theme that brings out the personal theme and leads to its development. Just as in Lord Jim

, the public theme is that of imperialism, and the personal theme is that of man confronted with the realities of this world and his own self. Commonwealth literary criticism often accuses Conrad of racism, asserting that Heart of Darkness distorts truth and cultural reality about Africa. Chinua Achebe launches a serious attack against Conrad when he writes: Conrad was a bloody racist [...] And the question is whether a novel which celebrates this dehumanisation, which depersonalises a portion of the human race, can be called a great work of art. My answer is: No it cannot."

0 Felix Mnthali argues much in the same way: Conrad attacks Europe's scramble for Africa [...] This attack is all the same neutralised by Conrad's acceptance of on of the cornerstones of modern imperialism, namely, racism.

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6 Conrad himself admitted that he had no sufficient knowledge of Africa, and to avoid 'responsibility' for not portraying the natives of the continent and their traditions with the exactness of an anthropologist he uses Marlow in the novel as a mask for his limited knowledge and insight. Marlow's African journey begins and ends in Europe, and the final image of Brussels is pitched at a lower key than those of Africa. Marlow's reactions to the civilised world are similar to those of Swift's Gulliver returning to England: I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome 1

4 Heart of Darkness, 121 \ 3

5 Chinua Achebe, 788 3

6 Felix Mnthali, 93 171