Darkness (Chapter 1) : animating the precolonial wilderness; a biocentric reading of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

by Yedda Morrison

In Darkness, Yedda Morrison erases—or, significantly, “whites out”—chapter 1 of Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness leaving behind only the words and phrases that reference the natural world. Morrison’s aim is not to comment on the original, but to cull or reframe the “luminous estuary / brooding gloom / sea.” In this brilliantly dark contribution to the emerging fields of conceptual writing and erasure poetics, Morrison gives us (back) our natural world—plucked violently, sadly, beautifully from the “master work.” In Darkness, the reader will discover for herself what is being borrowed, plundered, recycled, purloined.
— Robert Fitterman

Genres: Poetry

ebook / paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Glenn Frantz · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Darkness" is aptly prefaced with a 19th-century photograph altered by Morrison in a way deeply analogous to the erasure of the text. As a representation of nature, the poet's interpretation is layered over Conrad's, with the aim of transcending both, or at least shifting the emphasis.

Morrison highlights some surprisingly clustered repetitions of words such as "light," "gloom," "brooding," "coast," etc., and these can form pleasing verbal/visual patterns; for example "sea / sea / sea / shores / sea / shore" (page 10). The densest excerpts, especially those that keep phrases nearly intact from the original, sometimes allow Conrad's slant -- his portrayal of the jungle as a sinister setting -- to leak through. But the sparest pages, the ones with many isolated single words, work beautifully as poetry of the wilderness.

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. It's an interesting project, and interesting to think about what Morrison cuts, what she keeps. How what's missing frames what's present, and vice versa. I think it helps it if you've read the source text before, too.

[Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is available in 3 formats:
1.free .pdf download
2.black and white paperback
3.full color paperback

all are amazing!!