Date of Submission

Spring 2015

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Literature

Project Advisor 1

Thomas Keenan

Abstract/Artist's Statement

This thesis examines the role of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Roger Casement’s Congo Report in exposing the atrocities that occurred during King Leopold II’s administration over the Congo Free State. From 1885 to 1908 King Leopold’s administration claimed around ten million Congolese lives by either murdering or overworking the indigenous population. The sheer loss of life and a government reluctant to revisit its colonial skeletons has caused for the Congo Free State atrocities to become one of the twentieth century's most wildly neglected genocides. This thesis will treat both journalist and novelist as witnesses to the crimes against humanity, in order to explore the manner in which their testimonies merge and intersect to draw out the unspeakable horrors committed by King Leopold’s administration.

Open Access Agreement

On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
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