黑暗的心

小说黑暗的心（Heart of Darkness ）

作者:英国约瑟夫·康拉德（Joseph Conrad）

是公认的二十世纪文学经典、剥葱皮一样把殖民主义者的心态一层层刻画得淋漓尽致。本书具有鲜明的现代主义特色。作者康拉德用了马洛这样一个叙述者，让他以回忆者的身份出现在故事里，他的叙述穿梭于过去与现在、自己和库尔兹及听众之间，让读者分享着他的各种情绪，这种叙述角度的交替，开创了一种新的叙述模式，代替了传统的线性叙述方法。另外，小说中隐喻、象征等修辞手段的运用还使作品极具可读性。“黑暗的心”本身就含有双层寓意：既指地理意义上的黑色的非洲腹地，也指殖民者黑暗的内心。本书大量修辞手法的运用大大丰富了作品的意蕴，深化了小说的主题，使小说的思想内容、艺术风格不亚于20世纪任何一部现代主义小说。

《黑暗的心》记录了船长马洛在一艘停靠于伦敦外的海船上所讲的刚果河的故事。马洛的故事除了涉及马洛自己年轻时的非洲经历之外,主要讲述了他在非洲期间所认识的一个叫库尔兹的白人殖民者的故事——一个矢志将“文明进步”带到非洲的理想主义者,后来堕落成贪婪的殖民者的经过。

书摘

我已经在别处说过，是大海把我们联结在一起的。它不仅在长时间的分别中使我们心连心，它还有一种作用，能使我们彼此容忍对方的信口开河——甚至容忍他的自以为是。律师——一位最好不过的老年人——因为年高德劭，享用着甲板上唯一的一只软垫，躺在唯一的一条毯子上。会计已经拿出一盒多米诺骨牌，正在用它们搭房子玩。马洛盘着腿坐在船尾，背靠着后桅杆。他两颊深陷，黄面孔，背脊挺直，一副苦行僧的模样，两只胳膊垂下来，掌心向外翻，活像一尊菩萨。主任看铁锚拉稳了船，放心了，向船尾走来，坐在我们中间。大家懒懒地谈了几句，接着小船上便是一片寂静。不知为什么我们没有玩起那副多米诺骨牌。我们都若有所思，什么也不想做，只是静静地瞪着眼睛。白昼在一阵安详的宁静和美丽的辉光中逐渐逝去。水面平稳地闪耀着，天空中一个斑点也没有，静洁无瑕的光亮构成了一片安然寥廓；爱赛克斯沼泽上的那片烟雾好似一幅轻巧绚丽的薄纱，从内陆的丛林高地上垂下，把低低的海岸覆盖在它透明的皱褶里。只有西边天际笼罩着上游河段的那片朦胧，每分钟都变得更为阴沉，好像落日的临近激怒了它似的。

终于，沿一条曲线，太阳不知不觉地沉得很低了，鲜亮的白色变成了无光无热的暗红色。它仿佛在接触到那片覆盖着芸芸众生的朦胧时受到了致命的打击，马上就要突然消亡似的。

顷刻间水面上出现了变幻，安谧中减少了光辉，却更显得深沉。宽畅的航道中的古老河流，在这白日将尽时，水波不兴地安息着，它世世代代为两岸聚居的种族做过多少好事情，如今它，这条可以通往天涯海角的水上通途，端庄静穆地舒展在眼前。我们在观赏这条令人崇敬的河流，不是靠一个短暂的来而复往、去而不返的鲜艳白昼的闪亮，而是靠一种永志不忘的记忆所发出的庄严光辉。

Book Description

The Wordsworth Classics covers a huge list of beloved works of literature in English and translations. This growing series is rigorously updated, with scholarly introductions and notes added to new titles.

"Heart of Darkness" is a chilling tale of horror set in the Congo during the period of rapid colonial expansion in the 19th century. The story deals with the highly disturbing effects of economic, social and political exploitation of European and African societies.

From AudioFile

In HEART OF DARKNESS, Marlow, the narrator, undertakes both an outer and an inner journey. The outer journey takes him into the heart of Africa, where he encounters representatives of every colonial stripe. Performing the work instead of simply reading it, Scott Brick emphasizes this aspect of Conrad's classic, clearly conveying class differences and a range of foreign accents, as well as pidgin. Conrad's prose is dense and complex, but Brick delivers it smoothly and gracefully. However, Marlow's inner journey--during which he confronts the mysterious Mr. Kurtz--remains too distant and intellectualized to fully capture the emotional charge of the moment. G.T.B.

The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

Novella by Joseph Conrad, first published in 1902 with the story "Youth" and thereafter published separately. The story reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890, when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The narrator, Marlow, describes a journey he took on an African river. Assigned by an ivory company to take command of a cargo boat stranded in the interior, Marlow makes his way through the treacherous forest, witnessing the brutalization of the natives by white traders and hearing tantalizing stories of a Mr. Kurtz, the company's most successful representative. He reaches Kurtz's compound in a remote outpost only to see a row of human heads mounted on poles. In this alien context, unbound by the strictures of his own culture, Kurtz has exchanged his soul for a bloody sovereignty, but a mortal illness is bringing his reign of terror to a close. As Marlow transports him downriver, Kurtz delivers an arrogant and empty explanation of his deeds as a visionary quest. To the narrator Kurtz's dying words, "The horror! The horror!" represent despair at the encounter with human depravity--the heart of darkness.

About Author

D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke is Senior Professor of English at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, and former Chair of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. His other books include "Joseph Conrad: Beyond Culture and Background" (London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990) and "Salman Rushdie"

电影

外文名称 Dark Heart

导演： 凯文·刘易斯 Kevin Lewis

编剧： 凯文·刘易斯 Kevin Lewis

主演：

R.D. Call ....Finn

Alicia Fusting ....Candi

Darcy Halsey ....Annabelle

制作人 Produced by：

Steven Nash ....executive producer/producer

Steven Ritchie ....line producer

摄影 Cinematography：Marco Cappetta

剪辑 Film Editing：Liza Cardinale

选角导演 Casting：Carol Lefko

艺术指导 Production Designer：Shannon Kemp

美术设计 Art Direction by：Dominic Ceci

布景师 Set Decoration by：Anne Metcalfe

服装设计 Costume Design by：Oneita Parker

副导演/助理导演 Assistant Director：

Sarah Lemon ....second assistant director

Lawrence Sara ....first assistant director

Kasia Skorynkiewicz ....second second assistant director

影片类型：剧情

片长：USA:100 min / USA:102 min

国家/地区：美国

上映 2006年

对白语言：英语

色彩：彩色

混音： 数字化影院系统

级别：Australia:MA

制作公司：Arts and Letters Entertainment

发行公司：Peacock Films[澳大利亚](2006) (Australia) (DVD)

其他公司：Film Emporium Insurance Services[美国]insurance

剧情

身为退伍军人的主人公回到家乡，却发现家乡早已变了模样，与此同时，过去那些战争中的回忆也不时困扰着自己。到底战争意味着什么，战争终有结束的一天，给人们造成的伤痛却永远无法痊愈。