Reading Congo Reform Literature: Humanitarianism and Form in the Edwardian Era
READING CONGO REFORM LITERATURE: HUMANITARIANISM AND FORM IN THE EDWARDIAN ERA A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English By Mary K. Galli, B.A. Washington, D.C. April 15, 2019 Copyright 2019 by Mary K. Galli All Rights Reserved ii READING CONGO REFORM LITERATURE: HUMANITARIANISM AND FORM IN THE EDWARDIAN ERA Mary K. Galli, B.A. Thesis Advisor: Cóilín Parsons, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Social and political upheaval was ubiquitous at the turn of the twentieth century. The death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and King Edward VII’s subsequent ascension created a transitional moment that ended around the time of Edward’s death in 1910. Narrative form during the Edwardian era reflects the transitional nature of the time. In this thesis, I analyze the literary forms that authors used to address imperial violence and the atrocities committed in King Leopold II of Belgium’s Congo Free State (1885-1908). Joseph Conrad’s 1899 modernist novella, Heart of Darkness, predated the Congo Reform Association (1904-1912), but significantly influenced the reform movement, which is often identified as the first modern human rights and first mass media campaign. While Conrad’s modernist form differs from Mark Twain’s 1905 satirical pamphlet, King Leopold’s Soliloquy, and from Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1909 nonfiction, The Crime of the Congo, I argue that the diverse forms of these three texts delay the reading experience, which creates time for the reader (and possibly the writer) to think about the atrocities in the Congo, who to blame, and how to respond.
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