The Lives of a Classic : The Shadow of "Heart of Darkness" in "Salvador" by Joan Didion and "Inn the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz" by Michela Wrong

This essay focuses on Heart of Darkness’ status as a modern classic by examining its relationship to Salvador by Joan Didion and In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz by Michela Wrong. Both Didion and Wrong draw on Conrad’s novella to highlight the direct and indirect conse- quences of colonialism and to establish a historical continuity between the imperialist context described by Conrad and the postcolonial, Cold-War contexts they focus on. While Salvador signals the beginning of a new stage in the history of the reception of Heart of Darkness, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz alludes to the debate sparked by Chinua Achebe’s powerful indict- ment of Conrad’s novella and proposes its own interpretation, demonstrating an awareness of Heart of Darkness’ contested status as a modern classic. Both works show that the meaning of Heart of Darkness is far from stable, and that postcolonial readings based on ‘epistemologies of suspicion’ have often neglected the fact that its status as a classic depends less on academic interpretations than on a widespread understanding of the novella as a critique of colonialism.