Heart of Darkness

Conrad's novella follows a journey up the Congo toward the trader Kurtz, exposing the greed and horror beneath the "civilizing" rhetoric of Leopold's regime. For decades it was read as a searching indictment of imperialism. Yet it renders Africa as a mute backdrop for European crisis and its people as scenery, which is why it sits at the centre of this argument as both witness and target.

Its legacy. Every later debate in this section runs through, or against, this book.