Occupying Self and Other: The Politics of Teaching Heart of Darkness as a Teacher of Colour

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the ways in which the teaching of canonical texts such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness intersects with discourses of race and identity in multicultural classrooms. Informed by Chinua Achebe’s post-colonial reading of Conrad and the concept of ‘double consciousness’ adopted by W. E. B. Du Bois, I examine my own encounters with the text within the wider context of educational establishments. By positioning myself explicitly as a female teacher of colour, I suggest that classroom explorations of such texts can be shaped and guided by an educator’s own sense of agency in relation to issues of race and power.