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Heart of darkness reinvented? A tale of ex‐soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Respond to this article at http

(Www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

Bibliographic Data

ID11495014
AuthorsBangstad (0000-0002-5537-1218, University of Oslo), Sindre Bangstad, B E Bertelsen (0000-0002-3194-3664, Senter for Krisepsykologi)
Year2010
Volume26
Issue1
Pages8-12
Publication date2010-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology Today (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-540X • E-ISSN: 1467-8322
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-8322.2010.00709.x
OpenAlexW4240211546
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited4

This article presents the contemporary case of two Norwegian ex‐soldiers sentenced to death for murder, espionage and mercenary activity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It analyses the wider context of the historical roots of Norwegian engagement in the Congo (now DRC) as well as the mass‐mediated discourses centring around the tropes of a Conradian ‘Heart of darkness’. Further, using the insights of Johannes Fabian's seminal work on exploration, ethnography and representation (2000), it argues that contemporary Norwegian discourses on the Congo are steeped in the tradition of travelogues. Secondly, also drawing on Fabian, it argues that by representing the DRC as a topos ‐ a space without a place ‐ these discourses uncritically reproduce notions of decontextualised radical alterity

Alterity · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Ethnography · Media studies · Norwegian · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Sociology · Theology · Anthropology · History · Law · Philosophy · Travel Writing and Literature

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Unique citing works4
Citations per year0,4
Citation span2016 - 2026 (11)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae