Which theory is illustrated by Post-colonial Achebe's contention of Heart of Darkness?

• A. Post-colonial criticism
• B. Psychoanalytic criticism
• C. Marxist criticism
• D. New Historicism

Answer: (A)

Reading Heart of Darkness through a post-colonial lens highlights how imperial power shapes both the story and its images of others. Post-colonial criticism asks who gets to speak, whose perspective dominates, and how the so-called “civilized” narrator uses language to define and control the colonized world. In Achebe’s view, Conrad’s novella uses Africa and Africans mainly to illuminate European characters’ motives, doubts, and supposed moral revelations, while Africans themselves are largely unnamed, voiceless, or depicted as obstacles and exotic backdrops. This approach shows how the text participates in colonial discourse by presenting imperial ventures as noble or inevitable and by framing Africa as a place of darkness that reveals nothing about its own people.

That makes the post-colonial reading the clearest way to analyze the work here, because it foregrounds issues of representation, power, and ideology embedded in the narrative. While psychoanalytic, Marxist, or New Historicist readings can yield valuable insights in other contexts, Achebe’s core argument centers on how colonialism is embedded in the portrayal of Africa and the critique of imperialist storytelling itself.