Exploring the Other World: Racism and Imperialism in Joseph Conrad and Henry Rider Haggard

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, LMU Munich (Englische Philologie), course: Hauptseminar Postcolonial Literature, language: English, abstract: Henry Rider Haggard is often considered as a crude imperialist and chauvinist expansionist ideals, whereas Joseph Conrad-s Heart of Darkness has often been called the anti-imperialist novel par excellence. In this essay, I argue against this perspective. I claim thatin comparison to Heart of Darkness, which indeed projects Africa as a negative foil for Europe, Rider Haggard manages to give Africa and its inhabitants, despite his literary shortcomings, a graceful quality not found in Conrad-s work. While both authors depict Africa as -the other world- in the way their ambitions and prejudices create an image with little historical accuracy, Haggard-s embellished social utopia fails to display the deep-seated anxiety towards Africa Achebe finds in Conrad.