A JOURNEY INTO THE HEART OF DARKNESS - JOSEPH CONRAD

“. . . No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence—that which makes its truth, its meaning—its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream—alone. . . .”

These days we are reading some pages from Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS (1899) and, as usual, I'll try to help you study and understand both the novel and its author better providing you with useful materials and links.

Let's start with some links to know more about

THE CONTEXT

THE PLOT

THE MAIN CHARACTERS

THE THEMES

NIGHTMARES OF THE CONGO

The story of HEART OF DARKNESS is connected to Conrad's personal experiences. In 1890 he went to Africa to command a vessel on the Congo river for a Belgian company. His predecessor had been killed by native Africans. Conrad was partly there simply to get a living but, at the same time, he was a romantic for whom sailing was a spiritual vocation, as many of his novels testify. However, this time his travelling experience was extremely painful. His four-month adventure left him near death, devastated by fever. In 1891, after his return to Europe, he wrote in a letter to a friend :" I am still plunged in deepest night, and 

my dreams are only nightmares".

THE AGE OF MODERNISM - PART II

VIRGINIA WOOLF AND THE NEW NOVEL

(notes from an old book of mine, E. Chinol ENGLISH LITERATURE vol.II, Liguori Editore, 1983. I hope you can find them useful)

The main development of the early 20th century novel represents a break with the naturalist school and a movement towards a more subtle and complex vision of man and his world. The break occurred during the second decade of the century (“on or about December 1910” Virginia Woolf said, “ human nature changed”), when a new generation of writers began to question the conventions and the pretended objectivity of the traditional novel. Also with the help of new developments in psychology, especially of Freud’s psychoanalysis, they proposed to go beyond the apparently rational surface of the conscious mind, digging deep into the obscure, irrational world of the unconscious. And with them reality becomes a matter of personal impressions; the focus of attention shifts from external facts to our reactions to them.

VIRGINIA WOOLF IN THE MOVIE "THE HOURS" - CLIPS

Virginia Woolf became a complex, fascinating character in Michael Cunningham's THE HOURS (1999). When the movie was released in 2002, the role of Virginia ,  interpreted by Nicole Kidman,  brought to the Australian actress the Oscar as Best Actress.

Here are two clips from that movie