摘要

约瑟夫·康拉德是英国最杰出的小说家之一和二十世纪英国现代主义文坛的先驱之一。其最负盛名的小说《黑暗之心》早在1899年出版，一问世便得到了各界的关注，在随后数十年里影响力越来越大。小说讲述了在中非的刚果河运送象牙的船员马洛寻找象牙贸易商库尔兹的故事，在找寻和拯救库尔兹的过程中，沿途所见所闻的种种景象使马洛的旅途变成一场永无止境的噩梦。尽管《黑暗之心》的主人公均为男性，但其中的女性形象亦给人留下了深刻印象。她们在文中的形象是矛盾的。表面上看，她们是被动的、沉默而又神秘可怕的；但她们又是主动的、热情而圣洁的，她们是作者康拉德矛盾女性观的体现。本论文结合近现代女性主义的理论解读小说中的女性形象，并探讨康拉德笔下女性形象背后其本人的女性观。
本文拟从以下四个方面对其进行阐述：第一部分为作家作品简介；第二和第三部分结合女性主义批判理论深入分析小说中五个矛盾的女性形象；最后一部分探讨了康拉德笔下女性形象背后其本人的女性观。

关键词  女性形象，女性主义批判，女性观

Abstract

Joseph Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English and one of the pioneers of modernists in the twentieth century literary world in England. One of his most successful works is Heart of Darkness, which was first published in 1899. And it became vastly influential during succeeding decades. It is a short novel that tells a story about Charles Marlow’s experience as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa in search of a mysterious man named Kurtz. And the things that Marlow saw and heard on the way made his journey a terrible and lasting nightmare. Although the main characters in Heart of Darkness are men, the female images also leave a deep impression. These female images are contradictory. On the surface, they seem to be passive, silent and mysterious. But they are also active, enthusiastic and holy. They are the spokesmen of Conrad’s contradictory views on women. In this thesis, through combining the theory of modem feminism, I will not only tentatively explore and throw a new light on the study of the female images in this novel, but also analyze Conrad's views on women behind those female images from his pen.
It sets up four tasks to undertake. The first part comes to introduce the writer Joseph Conrad and the novel Heart of Darkness. The second part and the third part come to interpret some researches about feminist criticism and deep analyze the five contradictory female images of Heart of Darkness. The final part explains Conrad's views on women behind those female images from his pen. Through the thesis, we can read the women figures depicted in Heart of Darkness in a further way.

Keywords  female images, feminist criticism, views on women