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VOL. 11, ISSUE 4 (2025)
Subaltern retrieval of a fragmented colonial past: A comparative study of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
Authors
Shobha Arora Chutani
Abstract
This research paper examines the
representation of colonized subjects through a comparative study of Joseph
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart (1958). While Conrad’s narrative captures the psychological decay of
imperial agents, it simultaneously renders the African subject silent,
marginal, and symbolically othered. Achebe’s novel emerges as a deliberate
counter-narrative that restores agency, voice, and cultural memory to the very
people erased in colonial discourse. Using postcolonial and subaltern
frameworks (Spivak, Fanon, Said), the paper argues that Achebe’s text not only
interrogates the colonial archive but also retrieves a fragmented cultural
past, thereby repositioning the African as a thinking historical agent rather
than a mere backdrop to European moral drama. Through thematic, structural, and
ideological comparisons, this study reveals how the two texts together chart a
movement from colonial representation to subaltern self-representation.
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Pages:74-75
How to cite this article:
Shobha Arora Chutani "Subaltern retrieval of a fragmented colonial past: A comparative study of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Achebe’s Things Fall Apart". International Journal of English Research, Vol 11, Issue 4, 2025, Pages 74-75
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