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Séquence 5 · Into the blank spaces of the map: Conrad, Kipling and the imperial adventure

Is the adventure of exploration inseparable from the violence of empire?

Bonjour !

Dans cette séquence de langues, littératures et cultures étrangères (anglais), tu vas chercher à répondre à la grande question écrite en haut de la page. Elle se fait en 2 séances. Pour chaque séance : lis la consigne, étudie les documents, réponds aux questions sur ta feuille ou sur l'ENT, puis recopie l'essentiel dans ton cahier. Tu peux imprimer cette page avec le bouton « Imprimer ».

À la fin, je serai capable de :

Les mots importants

Scramble for Africa, Congo Free Stateframe narrative, unreliable narrator, ironyimperialism, « civilising mission », racismimperative, archaic register, ballad metrepostcolonial criticism

Ressources de la séquence

Les notions, les repères et les pistes pour aller plus loin, utiles pour toutes les séances.

Les notions à maîtriser

Scramble for Africa
Partition of Africa among European powers, formalised at the Berlin Conference (1884-1885).
Congo Free State
Personal possession of King Leopold II of Belgium (1885-1908), notorious for forced labour and atrocities in the rubber trade.
Frame narrative
An anonymous narrator on the Thames reports Marlow's tale: the story is told at one remove.
Civilising mission
Imperial ideology claiming that colonisation brings progress to « backward » peoples: Kipling's « burden ».
Imperative
« Take up », « Send forth »: the poem is an injunction addressed to the United States.
Postcolonial criticism
Reading of literature from the point of view of the colonised (Achebe, Said).

Repères

DateÉvénement
1884-1885Berlin Conference; creation of the Congo Free State.
1890Conrad captains a steamer on the Congo River.
1899« The White Man's Burden » (published in McClure's Magazine, subtitled « The United States and the Philippine Islands »); « The Heart of Darkness » in Blackwood's Magazine.
1902Heart of Darkness in book form, in Youth: A Narrative, and Two Other Stories.
1975Chinua Achebe, lecture « An Image of Africa ».

Pour aller plus loin

Sources et bibliographie

Mon parcours : je choisis mon rythme

Séance 1 · Blank spaces and darkness: Marlow's disenchantment

65 min

Séance approfondie : cours développé, documents sourcés, activités exigeantes avec coups de pouce.

La question du jour

What happens to the dream of adventure when the map is filled?

Mon plan de travail

Le cours à lire · Conrad and the colonial adventure

In « The Heart of Darkness » (1899), the sailor Marlow tells his friends, on a boat on the Thames, about his journey up an African river (the Congo, never named). As a boy he loved maps and their blank spaces: exploration was glory and mystery. But the blank has been filled with names: it has become « a place of darkness ». Marlow then judges the conquest: « robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale ». The only thing that « redeems » it is « the idea », a belief one can « bow down before »: a disturbing image of idolatry. The frame narrative and Marlow's irony make it hard to know where Conrad stands.

Document 1 · Joseph Conrad, « The Heart of Darkness » (1899), part I, Marlow's maps

Novella, Blackwood's Magazine, 1899 (public domain).

when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, When I grow up I will go there. […] But there was one yet—the biggest, the most blank, so to speak—that I had a hankering after. “True, by this time it was not a blank space any more. It had got filled since my boyhood with rivers and lakes and names. It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery—a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness.

Source : J. Conrad, « The Heart of Darkness », Blackwood's Magazine, 1899 (full text on Wikisource).

Pour bien lire ce document :

chap: gamin ; inviting: attirant ; hankering: envie ; patch: tache.

Document 2 · Joseph Conrad, « The Heart of Darkness », part I, the conquest of the earth

Same text.

They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea—something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to…

Source : J. Conrad, « The Heart of Darkness », 1899 (full text on Wikisource).

Pour bien lire ce document :

grabbed: s'emparaient ; aggravated: aggravé ; tackle: s'attaquer à ; complexion: teint ; redeems: rachète ; pretence: prétexte.

Activité 1 · Understand

12 min
Essentiel

Supports : Documents 1 and 2

Consigne :

Read the documents and answer in English.

  1. What did Marlow love as a boy?
  2. How has the blank space changed?
  3. How does Marlow define the conquest of the earth?

Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Comprehension

Activité 2 · Analyse

18 min
Essentiel

Supports : Documents 1 and 2, lesson

Consigne :

Analyse the ambiguity of Marlow's words.

  1. What does « darkness » mean here?
  2. Is Marlow's judgment of the conquest clear?
  3. What is disturbing in the end of document 2?

Ce qui est attendu (7 pts) : Analysis

Activité 3 · Speak

15 min
Travail à rendre

Supports : Documents and lesson

Consigne :

Record 2 minutes: « Are there still blank spaces on the map today? What drives explorers now? »

Ce qui est attendu (7 pts) : Oral production

Trace écrite · document à compléter (papier ou ENT)

Complète la trace écrite avec les mots de la banque, puis recopie-la dans ton cahier.

darknessframe narrativeideaspaces

Marlow loved the « blank ______ » of maps, but Africa has become « a place of ________ ». He calls the conquest « robbery with violence », redeemed only by « the ______ ». The _______________ makes Conrad's position ambiguous.

Séance 2 · Take up the White Man's burden: the rhetoric of empire

65 min

Séance approfondie : cours développé, documents sourcés, activités exigeantes avec coups de pouce.

La question du jour

How does a poem turn domination into a duty?

Mon plan de travail

Le cours à lire · Imperial propaganda in verse

Kipling wrote « The White Man's Burden » in 1899 to urge the United States to colonise the Philippines. Each stanza opens with the imperative « Take up the White Man's burden ». Empire is presented as a sacrifice: the colonisers « bind » their sons to exile to serve « captives' need », and receive only « The blame of those ye better, / The hate of those ye guard ». The colonised are described with racist stereotypes: « new-caught, sullen peoples, / Half-devil and half-child ». The archaic register (« ye ») gives a biblical solemnity. The poem was immediately parodied by anti-imperialists. Reading it with Chinua Achebe and Edward Said means analysing how literature justified domination.

Document 1 · Rudyard Kipling, « The White Man's Burden » (1899), stanzas 1 and 5

Poem, 1899, text of The Five Nations (1903) (public domain).

Take up the White Man's burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child. […] Take up the White Man's burden— And reap his old reward: The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard—

Source : R. Kipling, « The White Man's Burden », The Five Nations (full text on Wikisource).

Pour bien lire ce document :

breed: engendrez ; harness: harnais ; fluttered: affolés ; sullen: maussades, hostiles ; reap: récolter ; ye better: que vous améliorez.

Document 2 · Chinua Achebe, « An Image of Africa » (1975), idée centrale

Conférence, 1975, publiée en 1977 (présentation, sans citation).

Synthèse du professeur : le romancier nigérian Chinua Achebe reproche à Heart of Darkness de faire de l'Afrique un simple décor, « l'autre » de l'Europe, et de refuser aux Africains la parole et l'humanité ; il juge le livre raciste, quelle que soit la critique du colonialisme qu'il contient. Sa conférence a profondément changé la manière d'enseigner Conrad et, plus largement, la littérature impériale, dont le poème de Kipling.

Source : Chinua Achebe, « An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness », Massachusetts Review, 1977.

Activité 1 · Understand

12 min
Essentiel

Supports : Document 1

Consigne :

Read the stanzas and answer in English.

  1. To whom is the poem addressed?
  2. How are the colonised peoples described?
  3. What « reward » will the coloniser receive?

Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Comprehension

Activité 2 · Interpret

18 min
Approfondissement

Supports : Documents of the learning journey

Consigne :

Write a paragraph (about 180 words): « Conrad questions empire; Kipling glorifies it. » Discuss, using Achebe's critique.

Ce qui est attendu (8 pts) : Written production

Activité 3 · Translate

15 min
Travail à rendre

Supports : Document 1

Consigne :

Translate into French « Go bind your sons to exile / To serve your captives' need ».

Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Translation

Trace écrite · document à compléter (papier ou ENT)

Complète la trace écrite avec les mots de la banque, puis recopie-la dans ton cahier.

Achebechildimperativesacrifice

« The White Man's Burden » (1899) uses the __________ to urge the United States to colonise the Philippines. Empire is shown as a _________; the colonised are « Half-devil and half-______ ». Chinua ______ invites a postcolonial reading.

Fiche à trous · je complète

Complète le texte avec les mots de la banque (sur papier ou dans le document de l'ENT).

burdenchildideamapsspaces

As a boy, Marlow had « a passion for ______ » and their « blank ______ ».

Marlow says that « The conquest of the earth » is « not a pretty thing »; « What redeems it is the ______ only. »

Kipling calls colonised peoples « Half-devil and half-______ » and empire a « ______ ».

Ce que j'ai appris

Les 3 idées que je retiens :
Une phrase en anglais que je veux retenir :
Ce qui reste difficile pour moi / ma question pour le professeur :