EXISTENTIAL HUMANISM IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S HEART OF DARKNESS
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2017-06
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ABSTRACT
This dissertation investigates the different existential tendencies in Joseph Conrad‘s Heart of Darkness. What is noticeable is the melancholic hypnotic tone and mood the novella‘s style and themes create. Conrad‘s depiction of characters, settings, women, and themes reflect tendencies expressed in Jean Paul Sartre‘s ideology of Existential Humanism. Therefore, the present research aims at scrutinizing Conrad‘s existential views which are manifest in the novella. It uses the Existentialist approach to literary criticism in order to unveil the characters‘ freedom, responsibility, and absurdity in a meaningless world. Thus, chapter one presents a theoretical background on the Existentialist philosophy and its main figures. The second chapter, moreover, delves into Existential tendencies in Heart of Darkness. To conclude, the existential philosophy has a deep influence on Heart of Darkness, since the novella contains multiple existential themes, which assert that Heart of Darkness is a mirror for the existential philosophy.
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Existential CharacterizationTheoretical Background