The (un)essential Englishness. Heart of Darkness and the Empire

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54103/2035-7680/30946

Keywords:

canon; power; discourse; essential otherness; belonging; identity

Abstract

My work here examines one of the most controversial yet celebrated texts in the British literary canon, with the aim of highlighting its ambiguous nature and the dual effect it ultimately produces. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad tells a colonial story in a language, style, and expressive intent that align closely with the British literary and cultural canon. However, he does so through the gaze of an exile, proposing then a portrayal of the natives that is unprecedented in the history of English literature. From a critical perspective, the text offers insights that are deeply relevant to the approaches and methods of Cultural Studies. Within the critical frameworks developed by Edward Said, Stuart Hall, and Homi K. Bhabha, it becomes possible to bring to light a previously unexplored dynamic in the relationship between colonizer and colonized. This analysis concludes with the presentation of the teaching module outlined at the end of the contribution.

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Author Biography

Nicoletta Vallorani, University of Milan

Nicoletta Vallorani è professoressa di Letteratura Inglese e di Studi Culturali presso l'Università degli Studi di Milano. Ha al suo attivo pubblicazioni sul colonialismo e postcolonialismo (Nessun Kurtz. Cuore di tenebra e le parole dell’Occidente, 2017), sulle geografie urbane (Millennium London. Of Other Spaces and the Metropolis, 2012) e sulle intersezioni tra Crime Fiction e Migration Studies (“Postcolonising crime fiction. Some reflections on good and evil in global times”, 2014). Di recente, ha contribuito a The Routledge Companion to Crime Fiction (“Crime Fiction and the Future”, 2019). Con Simona Bertacco, è autrice di un volume su traduzione e migrazione, con introduzione di Homi K. Bhabha (The Relocation of Culture, Bloomsbury, 2021), e, con la medesima co-autrice e William Boelhower, ha curato il Bloomsbury Handbook of Anglophone Literature & Migration. Con Laura Scarabelli, co-dirige l'online journal Altre Modernità. Dirige la Scuola di Giornalismo Walter Tobagi.

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Published

2026-02-28

How to Cite

Vallorani, Nicoletta. 2026. “The (un)essential Englishness. Heart of Darkness and the Empire ”. Altre Modernità, February, 79-94. https://doi.org/10.54103/2035-7680/30946.

Issue

2026: NUMERO SPECIALE: 10 e lode!

Section

Saggi Ensayos Essais Essays

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