Aspects of hybridism in Joseph Conrad's Almayer's Folly and Heart of Darkness Aspectos de hibridismo em Almayer´s Folly e Heart of Darkness de Joseph Conrad

Abstract

In the light of concepts put forth by Cultural Criticism the essay discusses Joseph Conrad´s novels Almayer´s Folly and Heart of Darkness as stagings of the conflicts inherent in the syncretic nature of all culture. In the first novel, Nina, the offspring of an interracial marriage, is analyzed as a projection of the problems of hybridism. The theme recurs in Heart of Darkness, in the figure of the “harlequin”, whose mixed ancestry makes him the butt of continuous abuse. A fictional anticipation of Michel Serres´ allegorical harlequin , the half-caste proves close to three Conradian characters: Nina, in Almayer´s Folly, and, in Heart of Darkness, Kurtz and Marlow, the narrator. Conrad´s two novels thus nod to each other as mutually illuminating references, fictional premonitions of the key postcolonial category of hybridity.

Keywords

• Hybridism and colonialism in Conrad's novels
• The “harlequin” in Heart of Darkness
• Conrad's ideological ambivalence
• Hybridity as a feature of contemporary culture