Abstract
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness(' is not only about heart and its darkness but also about eyes and their scrutinizing gaze; a gaze that functions as a medium of control and operation of power_ During the colonial times, the European "eye" was attracted to the Afrkan jungles for one simple reason: "a precious trickle of ivory" (Heart, 14). The exploration of Africa- turned into an exploitation of its resources, natives ands their energies. Read in the light of Iviichael Foucault's analysis of the working of power in Discipline and Punish and History of Sexualityxli, Heart of Darkness sketches a picture of surveillance and punishment to administer human body. Though born much later than Conrad, Foucault's interest in "polymorphous techniques of power" (History, 11) lends a new dimension to the readers of Conrad to explore his assessment about exercise of power in the colonial and imperial perspectives. In _Heart of Darkness, Kurtz represents a mesmerizing gaze and its invisible supervision over human bodies_ He emerges as an image of benighted violence against the idea of benign vigilance.
Waseem Anwar. (2003) Power, Panopticon, and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: Benighted Violence against Benign Vigilance, Journal of Research ( Humanities), Vol XXXVIII, Issue 1.
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