Gnostic Secularocene
An Eco-Historical Reading of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21814/anthropocenica.6218Keywords:
Postcolonial Ecocriticism, Gnosticism, Imperiality, Secularocene, ConradAbstract
This essay proposes an eco-historical reading of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, examining its depiction of colonial imperiality and its entanglement with the ecological and racial dimensions of secular modernity. Framing Conrad’s novella within the concept of the Secularocene, as theorized by Mohamed Amer Meziane, and drawing on Bruno Latour’s reinterpretation of Eric Voegelin’s perspective of modernity as Gnostic, the study examines how the secular imperial project immanentizes a Gnostic-like dualism, thereby creating a world geography that is based on both the desirability and contempt for matter. In Europe, matter is supposed to be subjected to the realization of a “kingdom of perfection”, while in Africa it embodies the “evil” that resists the secular ideal. The essay exposes how Conrad’s novella unveils the nihilistic impasse that underlies this imperial geography, and thus the Secularocene. The transformation of a specific continent, in this case, Africa, into a symbol of evil, results in the pervasive devaluation of the human experience of earthiness.
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