Discuss how the descent narrative can function as a form of political and/or social dissent!

Discuss how the descent narrative can function as a form of political and/or social dissent!

During the past century, our ideas and definitions of hell have changed significantly through the experience of two world wars, the far reaching consequences of decolonization, the Holocaust, the split of mentalities into the dichotomy of “East” and “West” as well as most recent threats like diseases, changing moral values and terrorism. These developments make us think about hell in different terms and slowly superimpose classical schemes transmitted via Greek and Roman myths. It is most notably the motif of descent that has altered as death is no more considered the core of the narrative but instead has become an allegory. As Pike points out, `Myth and history are the motor of the descent, but it is driven by the very nature of its narrative structure: to be found in the underworld, a person must be dead. `^[1]

For the narrative tradition of classical antiquity, this certainly proves true. The twofold descent, consisting of nekuia (a ritual that implies a re-orientation towards the future and simultaneously abandons the past) and katabasis (the physical journey to an underworld), traditionally had clearly defined reasons: (1) to achieve wealth and riches, (2) to gain a wider knowledge by accessing prophecies, (3) to confront the combat with a higher spirit or (4) the quest for a lost beloved.^[2] Therefore, the hero had to undergo a transformative journey, including the metamorphosis of the self by confronting the absolute other and finally the experience of an infernal

revelation that brings him back to the surface and enables him to tell his story. Consequently, `myth generates history, and history, myth.´^[3]

The modern Western psyche however replaced the literal death by allegories: the idea of the underworld rises as a symbol for life on earth. As a result, the distinction between mythical and historical descents cannot be maintained because hell actually is part of the structure of feeling of our time. In other words: `Both worlds are represented as equally real.´^[4] Apart from being frightening and eerie, this makes way for a more concrete and tangible handling of infernal experiences as hell does not remain untouchable: It can rather be transformed and even demolished; and it is not a single, chiefly male hero that gains access but a vast majority of society that - involuntarily - takes part in that “journey”.

Traditional descent narratives are not only role models that are recoined by modern approaches; they also shape our present ideas of hell. However, the reasons that conjure the sense of being trapped into an underworld have extended dramatically and include hell as a state of mind; as a condition within ourselves. Nowadays, this conception is all the more influenced by cultural, societal and economical factors that add up to the inherited historical and mythical ones.

I therefore object to examine how 20th-century descent narratives can also imply forms of political and social dissent as a response to the experience of a hellish, life-changing situation.

Around 1900, the idea of hell becomes much more materialized. Research now focuses on the exploration of the self by going down into the unconscious, where truth seems to be located. In addition to being a physical place of exile and imprisonment, the descent to hell is now considered an encounter with the demon within and is aimed to be made a productive experience. The precedent narrative tradition which understands hell as a punishment with a chance to experience revelation and to recover is turned into a metaphor of alienation, suspended spirituality and fragmentation.

In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness the creation of hell consists of the estrangement from the known world and simultaneously a confrontation with a different culture where an unacquainted system of norms and values prevails. The feeling of disorientation and being lost is the main motif that dominates the entire novel and is especially expressed through the language Conrad uses.

As it can be presumed that ´language determinates our view of reality`<sup>[5]</sup>, reality in this novel seems to fade progressively as words construct mere images of characters. The crisis of language and communication becomes immanent as it often attempts to cover up the underlying hollowness of both the intention of the journey and the characters themselves. Consequently, the chasm between language and reality broadens constantly and reveals the final truth that nothing is what it pretends to be. Language is no longer a means of communication but of repression, as Ray confirms: ´Imperialism uses language to control its colonies while simultaneously using it to distance and gloss over the truth. `^[6] It functions as a barrier and provides `indirect chains of mediation between imperialist and exploited people. `^[7] Therefore, the descent journey presented here does not object to find truth and knowledge but is in fact a voyage towards nothingness; causing disenchantment and emptiness as the absolute other - the horror, death - remains an unspeakable mystery.

Another blatant theme is that of ambiguity. Although language is used like a fog to create mistiness and unclarity, there are several clear-cut oppositions like that of light and darkness. Africa is described as the most obscure hell where everything is cloaked in darkness. All settings, including London and Brussels, are described as somehow gloomy and dark, which implies the inability to see. Metaphorically, this also operates as a description of the human condition in Conrad’s time and has far-reaching implications. Failing to see each other means failing to understand and, additionally, failing to establish any sort of sympathetic communion with someone. That lack of understanding gravely shapes social circumstances and leads to further alienation.

[...]

^[1] David L. Pike, Passage through Hell: Modernist Descents, Medieval Underworlds (New York: Cornell University Press, 1997), p.5

^[2] Cf. Margaret Atwood, Negotiating with the dead, a writer on writing (London: Virago, 2003), p. 150

^[3] David L. Pike, Passage through Hell: Modernist Descents, Medieval Underworlds (New York: Cornell University Press, 1997), p.7

^[4] Rachel Falconer, Hell in contemporary literature: Western Descent Narratives since 1945 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), p.4

^[5] Martin Ray, Joseph Conrad (Edinburgh: Edward Arnold, 1993), p.19

^[6] Ibid., p.23

^[7] Jeremy Hawthorn, Language and Fictional Self-Consciousness (London: Edward Arnold, 1979), p.22