Thesis (MA) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research English Language Literature Department

Includes bibliography (sheets 60-64)

ABSTRACT
A symbol can be used to express a concept, make it acceptable, elicit suppressed or
buried emotions, offer a release, or improve or depict something. It explores the
underlying meanings of specific words and imagery that the author employs to
obliquely portray a particular message. Heart of Darkness, for example, represents the
realities of racism, and Underground Railway, the means of obtaining escape. This
study aims to use the concept of psychoanalysis, which allows one to comprehensively
understand literary works, to analyze two novels titled Heart of Darkness and The
Underground Railroad. Psychoanalysis is a set of psychological ideas and therapeutic
approaches that originated from Sigmund Freud's work and theories. The fundamental
concept of psychoanalysis is that everyone has unconscious thoughts, emotions,
memories, and ambitions. The aim of this research is to compare two different authors
who wrote two novels that mainly focus on the concepts of racism, rebellion,
imperialism, violence, and authority. The research selected these two novels as there
was not much analysis conducted on them in the literature. Besides, it allows the
readers to have a deeper understanding of the two novels and their characters which
are written from two different ethnical backgrounds. Therefore, this study will include
a detailed investigation of the main characters presented in the two novels Heart of
Darkness by Joseph Conrad and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.
Through this study, firstly, we will be introduced to two different authors with different
ideologies who concentrate on the same concepts through their novels. Secondly, we
will have psychoanalysis of the main protagonists, Marlow, and Kurtz, in The Heart
of Darkness, and also Cora and Ridgway in The Underground Railway. Thirdly, we
will illustrate the reasons behind racism and highlight the main reasons which turn a
person to be racist by providing examples from the novels. Fourthly, we will present
the other side of the truth that whites tried to hide in the world of civilizing by using
evidence of Africans from the two books which were humiliated under this title. The
final results of this research highlight the idea that humans are a mixture of good and
evil, and no one is born a racist person. Also, the results prove that racism does not
concern skin colour; instead, it is related to how we should be just human while we are
dealing with each other, no matter how there are differences between us.
Keywords: Heart of Darkness, Imperialism, Psychoanalysis, Racism, Resistance,
Rebellion, The Underground Railway.