Narrator, Naratee and Implied Reader in Heart of Darkness: A Study of Narrative Imperialism

The present study aims to analyze narrative strategy and its political implications in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It attempts to relate the narrative strategies of the text such as framing, double narrators and present and absent narratees towards the depiction of European imperialism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Conrad’s narrative strategies expose European imperialism in Africa. The novel depicts western identity under the mask of imperialism. However, the study takes advantage of Gerald Prince’s narratology, and it also includes a discussion of Iser’s concept of the implied reader. Heart of Darkness is the narrative act of Kurtz, Marlow, and the anonymous narrator. The text focuses on imperialism in the late nineteenth century that is in parallel with the kinds of acts and dialogues which are contained in the novel. The voices of the imperialists and the native inhabitants of the land are largely reworked by Marlow’s voice, who only witnesses the surface of events.