Going Native – A Comparative Study Based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Joseph Roth’s Das falsche Gewicht
Going Native – A Comparative Study Based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Joseph Roth’s Das falsche Gewicht

Summary/Abstract: As the title suggests, the study is aimed at comparing two literary texts, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Joseph Roth’s Das falsche Gewicht, with respect to the motif of going native. The term going native refers to the fears of European people living in colonies, such as being absorbed by the life and culture of the colonized country, which would result in their own degeneration and contamination. This process is therefore being seen as a sin against the law of delimiting the own civilized world from the foreign primitive culture. Both texts present all elements that are specific to the motif of going native, yet, whereas Conrad remains true to the tradition of colonial discourse, Roth will systematically deconstruct the topos.

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