In today’s humanities, there are things you’re allowed to say and things you are not. One isn’t allowed to say that a major work of literature makes the case for Western civilization’s superiority—not racial superiority, but civilizational superiority—over primitive culture. To hide that fact, scholars ignore whatever is necessary to make their point. In the case of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” they ignore a scene that, in its author’s words, “locks in” the meaning of the entire book.
“Heart of Darkness” is well known as an indictment of Western colonialism. Brittanica describes the 1899 novella thus: “Heart of Darkness examines the horrors of Western colonialism, depicting it as a phenomenon that tarnishes not only the lands and peoples it exploits but also those in the West who advance it.”
