Affect and narrative rhythm in Heart of darkness

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Marlow, the character-narrator in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, asserts that life sensation constitutes the “truth” as well as the “subtle and penetrating essence” of lived experiences, an assertion that both looks backward to problematize the Cartesian cogito, and looks forward to engage with contemporary renewed interest in affect. By shifting the focus from Marlow’s linear narrative to his narrative interruptions, this paper reconsiders the text to explore the ways in which affect interacts with Marlow’s storytelling. More specifically, by closely reading affectively-charged moments and scenes, I discuss how Marlow’s three major narrative gaps work to convey affective experiences against the wider horizons of qualia experience, colonialism, and intersubjective affect. I also explore the dynamic interaction between Marlow’s narrative crisis and his linear storytelling. As such, I argue that affect, though incommunicable to others through ordered storytelling, seeks its expression in narrative disruptions; it, above all, structures Marlow’s narrative rhythm. This way, an interrogation of affect offers an alternative to understanding Marlow’s silence and achronological digressions: the disrupted narrative sequence is no opposite to chronologically-ordered narration, but rather, a continuation of the latter. Ultimately, this paper highlights the complexity of affect and its expression, a central concern that is still going on in current critical explorations.