Essay Assignment 3: A comparative, critical analysis of Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Freud's Civililiztion and Its Discontents

DUE: NOV 20 and 21

Please address the following question in five pages or less. You should make appointments with the Center for Writing and Speaking to develop this paper from the very beginning stages of brainstorming and preparing an outline.

According to Perry "The Great War profoundly altered the course of Western civilization, deepening the spiritual crisis that had produced it" (p.759). For many late 19th and early 20th century thinkers, the liberal-humanistic promises of reason, freedom, equality and Progress emerging from Europe's late 18th and early 19th century intellectual, political, and economic revolutions appeared less and less viable in an age of increasing violence, anxiety, and doubt.

Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents both grapple with the darker sides of human nature and Western civilization. How do these texts help us to conceptualize the more problematic and even terrifying aspects of Progress and conditions of humanity in the context of the spiritual crisis of the late 19th and early 20th centuries? Consider how specific moments or central themes in the texts reflect on contemporary social issues (modernism, imperialism) and draw some conclusions about the significance of these texts in this period. You should incorporate relevant course material in addition to Conrad and Freud (e.g. Perry) to support your argument.