Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

PREFACE
Dissimilar in most respects. william Shakespeare's Tbe Tempest, Danie l
Defoe 's Robinson Crusoe and JosephConrad's Bean of Darknessshare one thing in
co mmon ; all can be defined as representative o f what has been categorized as
colonialist literature. All reflect a certain way of thinking and writing abou t indigenous
blacks. specifically Africans . The fictional presentation of blacks in European
literature. which coincided with the Europeanslave trade and colonization of Africa.
helped create the myth of the Dark Continent and the inferiority of the negroid in
co ntras t to the ca ucasian race . For exampl e. Prospera and Caliban in The Tempest
have becomethe archetypes of the master and slavedialectics of the west; Crusoe's
attem pt to tame the wild land . andMan Friday 's status as cannibal within it. further
intensifies the differences between the civilized white master and the black: savage; and
Conrad's readers are taken into the very heart of dar kness in the African continent
where darkness is synonymous with evil and Africans are reduced to the subhuman
standardof beasts . The scientific: and philosophical speculations of such men as
Darwin. Hume and Kant reinforced the euroc entric assumptions prevalent at the time.
The distinct dicho tomy between whi te and black, good and evil , master and slave,
civilized and savage, cultured andprimitive was established and its subsequent
dialectics continued to permeate literary texts and academic institutions . Europe
became the imperial centre, the continent of the superior master race with all its
patriarcba.l, hierarchical values; non-Europeans. particularly those of African. Indian .
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