Heart of Darkness Event
Aug 2nd, 2019
12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.

First Friday Lecture: The White Man's Peril: Heart of Darkness as Conrad's Reply to Kipling

Address
Chicago Cultural Center

Chicago Cultural Center
78 E Washington St
Chicago, IL 60602
United States

First Friday Lecture: The White Man's Peril: Heart of Darkness as Conrad's Reply to Kipling

Today often considered both anti-imperialist and profoundly racist, Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness can be understood as simultaneously affirming and rejecting the "imperial logic" epitomized in Rudyard Kipling's contemporaneous poem "The White Man's Burden." This lecture will attempt to offer a holistic interpretation of Conrad's novella that makes sense of its apparent internal contradictions by examining Kipling's "imperial logic" and Conrad's critique of it—a critique grounded in the profoundly multivalent contention at Heart of Darkness's unspoken, "horrific" core: that "Whiteness is only skin-deep."

Presented by:

Adam Rose has taught in the Basic Program at the University of Chicago Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies since 1993, and is a former staff chair of the program. He is primarily interested in the ways texts affect human life. He is the recipient of the 2007 Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies Excellence in Teaching Award.

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Friday, August 2, 2019 at 12:15 PM CT

Chicago Cultural Center
78 E Washington St
Chicago, IL 60602
United States