Joseph Conrad’s classic novella Heart of Darkness has been the object of a controversy, and harsh condemnations were formulated against the work. Notably, it was targeted as an example of colonialist as well as racist prejudice and prominent author like Achebe and influential theorists like Eagleton and Said have launched far reaching criticisms again this work long considered as part of modern literary canon. This paper argues that these criticisms failed to demonstrate their relevance as literary analysis and ignored crucial features of the novella as a work of art. If we put the story in the context of its creation and read the text in the way as Conrad intended much of the accusations would appear superficial and wide of the mark. Moreover, it is argued that literary figures should be judged by themselves for their aesthetic values as literary creation and not as prototypes of some social category. The specificity of a literary work lies in the fact that it is fundamentally different from political and sociological discourse.

约瑟夫·康拉德（Joseph Conrad）的经典中篇小说《黑暗之心》一直是引起争议的对象，对此工作提出了严厉的谴责。值得注意的是，它的目标是殖民主义和种族主义偏见的典范，著名作家如阿切贝（Achebe）以及有影响力的理论家如伊格尔顿（Eagleton）和赛义德（Said）再次提出了深远的批评，这项工作长期以来被认为是现代文学经典的一部分。本文认为，这些批评未能证明其作为文学分析的意义，而忽视了中篇小说作为艺术品的重要特征。如果我们将故事放在故事的创作背景中，并按照康拉德的意图阅读文本，那么很多指控将显得肤浅而宽泛。而且，有人认为，文学人物应以其审美价值作为文学创作而不是某些社会范畴的原型而自己判断。文学作品的特殊性在于它与政治和社会学话语从根本上不同。