British Empire-Building - Abolition & Colonization - Exploration, Imperialism & Racism - Heart of Darkness - Modernism

Sep 23, 2026

British Empire-Building explores transatlantic slave trade, Middle Passage mortality, and Britain’s imperial expansion through India and southern Africa. It links abolition and emancipation milestones to legal and political conflicts, while detailing European exploration, the Scramble for Africa, and racist evolutionary assumptions about civilization. The narrative then transitions to Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” treating it as a critique of colonialism, with attention to social breakdown, alienation, mythic journeys, and modernist techniques like stream of consciousness and fragmented narration.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPPT

Pages25

Reading Time39 min

AccessFree to download

British Empire-Building

Atlantic Slave Trade and Imperial Expansion

Abolition & Colonization

Exploration, Imperialism & Racism

Marlow’s & Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”

Early Modernism and Narrative Techniques

Social Breakdown and Personal Crisis

Mythic Journey and Psychological Novel

Experimental Forms for Multiple Realities

Challenges for Readers and “The Contract”

Genre Theory and Modernism Context

British Empire-Building Atlantic Slave Trade (1650 - 1900): up to 28 million central & west Africans captured & driven to coasts to be sold as slaves 1450 and 1850: at least 12 million Africans were shipped from Africa to New World - notorious "Middle Passage“ (20% mortality rate) Mid-18th century British-French wars for control of India (British East India Co.) British Empire-Building 1789: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustava Vassa = slave narrative fuels anti-slavery movement 1792: Slave uprising in Haiti led by Toussant L'Ouverture 55,000 blacks,wage guerrilla & frontal war against British for years 1795 - 1818: British seize control of Cape Colony, South Africa, from Dutch, declare control & increase Brit. immigration; Dutch Boers move inland & seize land Abolition & Colonization 1833: British abolish slavery in West Indies. 1839-1842: Amistad revolt (basis of 1997 Spielberg film) launches intense legal, political, popular debate over slavery in U.S. 1857-1858: Sepoy “Mutiny” – British Crown takes over India 1863: Emancipation of slaves in U.S. amid Civil War. 1876-77: Queen Victoria declared Empress of India Exploration & Colonization 18th and 19th centuries: European political, economic, scientific interests fuel search for new markets & exploration Stage set for European “Scramble for Africa” – 1870s 1770: James Bruce (Brit.) reaches source of Blue Nile 1795 & 1805: Mungo Park (Scot.) explores Niger River 1855: David Livingstone (Scot.) explores Zambezi River & names Victoria Falls Exploration, Imperialism & Racism 1863: British explorers Speke & James Augustus Grant, traveling downstream, & Sir Samuel White Baker, working upstream, locate sources of Nile Christian missionaries & European merchants come with European explorers View of Africans: "primitive, pre-literate, undeveloped” a/c Eurocentric theories of evolution of civilized culture. Marlow’s & Conrad’s 1889-90 journey into “Heart of Darkness” Joseph Conrad (1857-1914) Early Modernism & Heart of Darkness Social breakdown, fragmentation: lose faith in progress, science, religion, politics, bourgeois morality Alienation from urban bureaucratic society, a sterile, materialistic “waste land” Question, challenge structures of human life--e.g. Christianity-challenged as “convenient fictions” created to impose order, meaning on random, senseless, violent world Personal & Collective Crisis Mid-1870s “Scramble for Africa” 1876-1884: King Leopold II (r. Belgium, 1865-1909) uses Stanley to explore, acquire, colonize “Congo Free State” as his personal possession 1885 Berlin Conference European powers divide up Africa 1889-90: Conrad goes to Congo & captains river steamboat to retrieve Klein; trauma & illness haunt him the rest of his life Heart of Darkness = Harrowing Critique of Western Colonialism 1899, 1902: Heart of Darkness exposes predatory European Colonialism & its atrocities Brussels = “whited sepulchre”; hypocrisy of hollow ideals: “civilizing mission” & “White Man’s Burden Public opinion turns against “jingoism” (e.g Rudyard Kipling) 1908: Leopold II loses Congo to Belgian government 1960: Belgian Congo achieves independence Mythic Journey Unsettling global correspondences in world “myths” & rituals: e.g. Frazer’s Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (1890) & Weston’s From Ritual to Romance (Fisher king) Carl Jung (1875-1961): all humans share common spiritual/ psychic heritage: collective unconscious, racial memories, archetypes emerge in dreams, myth/religion, art & literature “Psychological” Novel Freud (1856-1939): feeling, unconscious, inward journey into self, back into past/ childhood keys to understanding human nature/behavior Psychoanalytical method: healing through storytelling Focus: mental life, perceptions of story teller and his search for meaning (vs. tale itself) inward journey into dream/nightmare world of irrational “uncontrollable” unconscious Experimental Forms for Multiple “Realities” of Uncert

FAQs

How does the presentation describe the Atlantic slave trade and the “Middle Passage”?

It states that up to 28 million central and west Africans were captured and driven to coasts to be sold, and that at least 12 million Africans were shipped from Africa to the New World via the notorious “Middle Passage,” noting around 20% mortality.

What key events link British policy to abolition and emancipation?

It highlights 1833 British abolition of slavery in the West Indies, the 1839–1842 Amistad revolt and its U.S. debate context, 1863 emancipation of slaves in the U.S. during the Civil War, and later transitions such as Belgian Congo independence in 1960.

What does “Heart of Darkness” critique, and what modernist narrative methods does it emphasize?

It frames “Heart of Darkness” as a harrowing critique of Western colonialism, exposing predatory European colonialism and atrocities, while discussing social breakdown and alienation. It also emphasizes modernist forms such as fragmented, suggestive narration, interior monologue, and the flow of consciousness connecting present awareness with memory.

Sep 23, 2026

Uploaded by Aria Callaghan