GOING UP THAT RIVER: WATER SYMBOLISM IN CONRAD’S HEART OF DARKNESS

Abstract

This paper seeks to interpret the foundational Modernist novella Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad through a set of ideas existing in and arguably creating Modernism as it is
known: the mythology of water as the fundamental but fickle fluid Other subsisting at the basic
level of the world and giving life to it while constantly needing to be controlled and tamed by a
superior civilizing force, which is a mesmerizing narrative that lends itself all too easily to colonialist
abuses. This mythology of water has at its core the story of katabasis/nekyia, a symbolic
night journey over water deriving from ancient imaginaries, leading into Hell and back. The
journey begins with exile from the rational, stable civilized world, and descent into the irrational,
chaotic, watery depths of the unconscious and prime matter. In this underwater Hades or Hell,
the hero is confronted with the watery beast that is the basis of carnal life at whose hands he suffers
a symbolic death, which leads to a rebirth. The beast is often a guardian of precious life-giving
treasure, and the victorious hero is allowed to take the spoils with him back to the surface.