May 19, 2006
The Value of Teaching From a Racist Classic
Recently an African-American graduate student approached me at the end of class, in the middle of the semester, carrying a small, paperback edition of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, a text in a course I was teaching on obsession. She placed the book on my desk and said: "Professor Davis, you keep it. I'm not going to be reading this anymore." The student had declared in class that the work was racist and that its portrayals of Africans were stereotyped. I wasn't surprised: The book is
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Peer Review
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Academic Assets
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Teaching
