The crisis of representation: Joseph Conrad and Ngugi wa Thiong'o in dialogue

Abstract

The question of representation creates the backbone of postcolonial literary studies, since postcolonial literature came into fruition primarily as a reaction to the European portrayal of indigenous communities. Their literary representation in European fiction was often perceived as deformed and unjust. With the colonized subjects often portrayed in a non-individualized and dehumanized way, postcolonial literature set out to debunk those depictions by providing a fairer share of space and a more respectable approach to the presentation of the culture and the people of the extended imperial family. However, this paper seeks to argue that despite its effort to counterbalance the colonial dis-course, early postcolonial fiction was far from being impartial. It seems to have suffered from a similar amount of stereotypization found in colonial writing and often failed to resist the temptation of ideological rhetoric. To illustrate the point, Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, one of the most discussed literary texts produced by the empire, is read in conjunction with The River Between, a novel written by the prominent Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. As the analysis demonstrates, in terms of characterization and portrayal, neither of them seems to be able to escape a certain extent of stereotypization and reductionism.