earticle

영어

This paper explores the concept of the body and its openness suggested by Jean-Luc Nancy in Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness. In Corpus, Nancy suggests a unique way of thinking about the body. He explains the body as the other and suggests its openness. When he says the body as being open, it is turned toward the outside and toward the ‘touch' with the other. Nancy’s discussion of the body can shed new light on the interpretation of Heart of Darkness. Conrad’s novella has been read as an allegorical or symbolic journey in which Marlow meets the other while he is going up the Congo river or interpreted in the context of postcolonialism. When we apply Nancy’s idea to the novella, however, Marlow’s meeting with the other is realized through the body. It is the body or the openness of the body that allows Marlow to recognize his connection with the other, either the cannibals on the ship or those Africans he encounters along the river. Moreover, Marlow understands Kurtz through the voice, a part of the human body. Thus Marlow’s journey becomes a journey toward the bodies resonating with each other in a community of bodies.