Delineation Of “Orientalism” - Post-Colonial Bestowal In Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of colonial imperialism on indigenous peoples, who in Post-colonial literature, navigate a problematic terrain between their traditional way of life and the prevailing sociocultural and political system that seeks to subjugate them. From a post-colonial vantage point, it will search out the "sordid realities of a diseased social order" by revaluating colonial insanity, radicalism, and indigenization. As a result of their oppression and colonisation, indigenous people have had to fight for recognition of their social and cultural identities as well as their national and anti-nativity identities, particularly in the post-colonial period. European exploratory colonisation was a form of imperialism that hit the colonised natives hard on many levels: politically, culturally, socially, and psychologically. The colonisers also sought to erase the natives' cultural heritage and establish a "cultural dominance" state. How the subaltern people are portrayed in literature and how they are exploited by colonial power are both examined in this study. Examining how imperial authority drew ideological and cultural lines between the West and the East through its political exploitation of literature is the primary goal of this article. Looking at Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness through the lens of post-colonial research from the 19th century tries to highlight the marginalised and silenced voices.

Moreover, the central focus is on the representation of "Orientals" and "Others" in Conrad's Heart of Darkness within Western colonial discourse. The Western portrayal of Africans in literature is skewed and prejudiced, reflecting the superiority of the "Occident" and the inferiority of the "Orientals" (a term associated with the Western concept of "othering"). This paper seeks to expose this bias and distortion.