What triggers perceptions of racism in Heart of Darkness? A reader-response analysis

Mastropierro, Lorenzo; Conklin, Kathy

Abstract

This paper combines reader-response analysis and stylistic insights to investigate what may be triggering perceptions of racism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It presents the results of a survey that asked participants to read extracts from the novel in which Africans are described and to highlight words and phrases they found problematic. Participants were then asked to answer some questions about their perception. Linking quantitative examination of the patterns emerging from participants’ highlighting with a qualitative analysis of participants’ answers, this paper provides a comprehensive picture of the linguistic features and structures that contribute to the perception of racism in Heart of Darkness. By doing so, this paper not only offers a novel perspective on the discussion about race and racism in Conrad’s canonical text, but it also provides further empirical evidence of the relationship between language and reader response.

Citation

Mastropierro, L., & Conklin, K. (2023). What triggers perceptions of racism in Heart of Darkness? A reader-response analysis. Language and Literature, 32(4), 437-457. https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470231202263

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 14, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Sep 22, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-11
• Deposit Date: Jan 2, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 22, 2023
• Journal: Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics
• Print ISSN: 0963-9470
• Electronic ISSN: 1461-7293
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 437-457
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470231202263
• Keywords: Literature and Literary Theory, Linguistics and Language, Language and Linguistics
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/25645274
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09639470231202263