The famous British writer Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness has been considered by many readers and critics to be an important anti-colonial work, and Conrad is also seen as an anti-colonialist writer. However, the cultural hegemony and the distortion of the image of the black expressed in the novel precisely meet the needs of the colonialist ideology and provide cultural support for the colonialists. It is the the cultural hegemony and the distortion of the image of the black make him unintentionally become the accomplice of other colonialists. The paper focuses on the dual performance of Conrad's cultural colonialism in the novel Heart of Darkness.

The significant novel of the famous British writer Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, has been drawing attention from readers and critics since it was first published in 1902. It has been hailed as one of the best short stories in the history of English literature. Comments about it can also be described as benevolent seeing benevolence and the wise seeing wisdom. Some analyzed by psychoanalysis that Marlow's trip to Africa was a spiritual journey to explore his inner world; some analyzed it by using feminist theory, arguing that it was a novel that discriminated against women; some argued from racism and regarded it as a racist novel; and the most popular one is that Heart of Darkness is a progressive novel of anti-colonialism. This paper also does not deny its progressiveness. The book's slap on the colonists who burned, robbed, and committed any atrocities and the sympathy of Africans who is struggling on the brink of death were evident, which is exactly its progressiveness. But is it too arbitrary to inferred that Conrad is a complete anti-colonialist, neglecting his cultural colonial character? This paper is an attempt to analyze Conrad’s cultural colonialism in Heart of Darkness.

In fact, this work not only inherits the characteristics of realism and romanticism, but also saturates the colors that are completely different from these two traditions. It is a pioneer of modernist works. Some critics pointed out that “the dark and brutal exploitation by European colonial powers of Heart of Darkness is a record full of anger and irony. This most infamous plunder blasphemes the history of human conscience.” Chinua Achebe, a black writer and critic who comes from western Africa, believes that Conrad is full of racism in Heart of Darkness. In Achebi's opinion, Conrad regards Africa as a foil to Europe. Under the reference of Africa, the superiority of Europe itself can be revealed. What makes people think deeply is why a novel makes the two sides of dispute hold opposite views? How did Conrad, a representative who is regarded as an anti-colonialist writer, being influenced by the system with the white cultural center that cannot escape, and the excellent colonial culture the white people have, and inadvertently becoming the accomplice of the colonialists? The author believes that the deep-seated motivation of Conrad's ideological contradiction should be the culture that occupies the dominant position of capitalism. The mainstream culture of Western modern civilization evolved during the process of capitalist expansion to become a tool of imperialist aggression, plunder, and oppression. It eventually became a widespread framework for colonial consciousness. It convinced thousands of European citizens that conquest and occupation were theirs responsibilities and obligations.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

In the novel Heart of Darkness, Conrad described and criticized the cruelty of colonialist. Meanwhile, he realized running ahead of age that imperialism is actually the violation of civilization. On the contrast, the images that Conrad used were marked with the white, which reflected the ideas of white supremacy. The novel covers these two contradiction aspects. This paper is to discuss the duality of Conrad’s attitude towards colonialism in the novel.

In order to fully understand Conrad’s attitude towards colonialism in the novel, main ideas of the novel and several detail description should be point out and some comparison should be made between the both opposite idea- to be an anti-colonialist or a accomplice of the other colonialists.

Questions are presented as follows ( But will not be limited to these ones):

1. The Trace of Conrad's Colonial Thought.

2. The Artistic Features of the Novel

3. The Anti-colonialism of Heart of Darkness.

4. The Colonialism of Heart of Darkness.