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The dark continent? : images of Africa in European narratives about the Congo / Frits Andersen.

Van Pelt Library DT652 .A53 2016
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Andersen, Frits, author.
Contributor:
Frost, W. (William), translator.
Skovhus, Martin, translator.
Language:
Danish
English
Subjects (All):
Democratic Republic of the Congo--In literature.
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Congo (Democratic Republic)--History.
Congo (Democratic Republic).
History.
Literature.
Genre:
History.
Physical Description:
690 pages : illustrations (some color), portraits (some color), maps (some color) ; 25 cm
Other Title:
Images of Africa in European narratives about the Congo
Place of Publication:
Aarhus : University of Aarhus, [2016]
Summary:
Africa: a forgotten continent that evades all attempts at control and transcends reason. Or does it? This book describes Europes image of Africa and relates how the conception of the Dark Continent has been fabricated in European culture with the Congo as an analytical focal point. It also demonstrates that the myth was more than a creation of colonial propaganda; the Congo reform movement the first international human rights movement spread horror stories that still have repercussions today. The book cross-examines a number of witness testimonies, reports and novels, from Stanleys travelogues and Conrads 'Heart of Darkness' to Herges Tintin and Burroughs 'Tarzan', as well as recent Danish and international Congo literature. 'The Dark Continent?' proposes that the Wests attitudes to Africa regarding free trade, emergency aid and intervention are founded on the literary historical assumptions of stories and narrative forms that have evolved since 1870.
Contents:
THE CONGO IN PROSE- INTRODUCTION. Life and works: reading Stanley
Traveller on global terms
Prose: a framework and reading perspective
Literary topography of the Congo
Anthropoetic narrative and method ; H.M. STANLEY - MAGIC AND MARKET. Moving perspective: Through the Dark Continent (1878)
Conflicting testimonies: In Darkest Africa (1890)
The space of prose: magic and pragmatism ; RED RUBBER - TALES OF TERROR. Heart of Darkness in travel literature
Atrocity accounts
"The Espionage System": red rubber in prose
The field: red rubber and Heart of Darkness between Nationalism and world literature ; THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. The Congo in travel literature: history and oblivion
The Congo in novels: Graham Greene, V.S. Naipaul and Urs Widmer
The Congo in popular literature: bizarre truths in bizarre stories
The Congo, I Presume: anthropoetic narrative ; THE CONGO IN PROSE. Congo literature: a cross-sectional view
Place
Testimony
Atrocity accounts and human rights
Oblivion and historical narrative
World literature and globalisation.
Notes:
"This book is a revised version of the Danish dissertation Det mørke kontinent? which was accepted for defence for the higher doctoral degree in philosophy and subsequently approved by the Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University."
Includes bibliographical references (pages 669-683) and index.
ISBN:
9788771248531
8771248536
OCLC:
946011351

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