Question

is post colonial criticism heart of Darkness or "An image of Africa"

Answer 1

Short answer: both.

Postcolonial criticism is a theoretical approach; Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is one of its most frequently analyzed texts, and Chinua Achebe’s essay “An Image of Africa” is one of the most influential postcolonial critiques of that novel. Achebe uses a postcolonial perspective to charge Conrad with racist dehumanization of Africans; his essay helped launch and sharpen debates in postcolonial studies about representation, canon formation, and who gets to tell whose story. So the novel is a major object of postcolonial critique, and Achebe’s essay is a foundational piece of that criticism.

If you’re studying this topic, read:
- Heart of Darkness (Conrad) — the primary text under scrutiny
- “An Image of Africa” (Achebe) — the landmark postcolonial critique
- Core postcolonial theory (Said, Spivak, Bhabha, Fanon) and later responses/rebuttals to Achebe for the wider conversation.

If you meant something different by your question, tell me and I’ll tailor the answer.