Postcolonial Interjections: Jean-Philippe Stassen Illustrates Heart of Darkness and We Killed Mangy Dog

Abstract

odes de représentation. In 2006, Belgian cartoonist Jean-Philippe Stassen produced new editions of two books from the European colonial era—Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Luìs Bernardo Honwana’s We Killed Mangy Dog—which he provided illustrations and, in the case of Heart of Darkness, other contextualizing materials. Part of a broader trend in which artists illustrate classic literature, these two publications invite readers to return to the original texts to explore the notion of silence and how it functions differently in each of the texts. This article considers Stassen’s various paratextual practices to examine how, through interjections across time and space, he disrupts, enhances, challenges, and complements the originals. In the case Heart of Darkness, framing becomes a multivalent strategy that exposes gaps and shortcomings in Conrad’s writing. Conversely, Stassen adapts Honwana’s literary strategies and transposes them to the visual field, thus emphasizing silences and the subtle power of the piercing eye in the political allegory We Killed Mangy Dog. The choice of these two particular texts suggests an overhauling of colonial discourse. Ultimately, the range of Stassen’s paratextual practices and the formal characteristics of his illustrations, meant to reconfigure readers’ approach to the original texts, seek to rethink European colonialism, imperialism, and their modes of representation.