International Journal of Language & Literature

The Image beneath the Word: Intermedial Study of the Text and Image in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Ana Abril Hernández

Abstract
Graphic adaptations of pieces of literature aim at re-presenting the text they are based on. For this reason, scholars study these intermedial literary works in an attempt to see what aspects of the original text are re-interpreted or adapted to the new social context in which they appear. Each version of a previously written work of literature will carry unique elements that will broaden the meaning and reception of the original piece of literature as they reinterpret that book. Those remediated pieces of literature tend to combine the two main modes of communication: the visual and the linguistic. The latest graphic adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness (first published in book form in 1902) sheds contemporary light on the main theme of this book (colonization) by showing a XXI century vision. This graphic version has been published in 2013 in The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3 and is designed by Matt Kish. The semiotic approach that I will follow in this article will provide a theoretical basis for an intermedial study that will deepen in the multimodal load of this novella through a comparative study with its graphic adaptation.

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