'Heart of Darkness' – 'Heart of Redness': Heartache and Pain in two Commonwealth Novels

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Published: Jun 30, 2013
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/lincu-2015-0008
Keywords:
colonialism postcolonialism body pain body marks corporeality “redness” versus “darkness” identity memory cultural contact cultural stereotypes (self- and hetero-images)

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Ana-Maria Ștefan
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi

Abstract

Our study is conceived as a comparative analysis of Zakes Mda’s postcolonial and postmodern novel 'The Heart of Redness' and Joseph Conrad’s canonical and colonial novella 'Heart of Darkness', from the viewpoint of a literarily encoded anthropology of the body. In both texts, body marks and body pain are prominent and recurrent motives, carrying along important cultural meanings, related to several classic themes of colonial and postcolonial literature: the birth and becoming of cultural identity and awareness, culture shock, cultural contacts, enculturation versus deculturation, and cultural memory, as a vehicle and repository of myths, history and (body) image stereotypes.

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How to Cite
Ștefan, A.-M. “’Heart of Darkness’ – ’Heart of Redness’: Heartache and Pain in Two Commonwealth Novels”. Linguaculture, vol. 4, no. 1, June 2013, pp. 9-24, doi:10.1515/lincu-2015-0008.
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Vol. 4 No. 1 (2013)
Section
Articles
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