ABSTRACT
Last chapter has explored how Conrad's early writing functions to bridge his past, present, and future. This chapter proceeds to demonstrate how Conrad complicates the discussion of autobiographical memory through innovating narrative strategies. Centring on the tension between the complexity of the Other's culture and the incompleteness of storytelling, this chapter argues that Conrad, acutely aware of the limits of capturing past experiences in narrative, grapples with the inherently interpretive and narrative nature of memory as he recounts his encounters with African culture. It will specifically discuss how Conrad retells his Congo experience in different versions, and how these different interpretations – his narrative in “An Outpost of Progress”, Marlow's lie to the Intended, and Marlow's storytelling on the Nellie in Heart of Darkness – act to help him better understand the complexity of past experiences. Ultimately, the discussion transcends the confines of individual-based memory and actively engages with the historical and cultural world in which the remembering process is essentially entangled.
