Conrad's Life

Conrad: Heart of Darkness

In this course, Professor Cedric Watts (University of Sussex) explores Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The course begins by looking at Conrad's life – beginning with his upbringing in the small town of Berdychiv, and following his career as both a sailor and a writer. After that, we turn to the novel itself, thinking about whether Heart of Darkness is either 'racist', 'sexist' or both. In the fourth module, we consider the extent to which Heart of Darkness may be seen as a Modernist text, before turning in the fifth and final module to some of the subtleties of the tale – its delayed decoding, its covert plotting, and its use of symbolism.

Conrad's Life

In this module, we focus on the life of Joseph Conrad, thinking in particular about his upbringing in the Polish town of Berdychiv, his early career as a merchant sailor in both France and England, and his later work as a writer of novels.