Should We Read Heart of Darkness?

-The novella has often been condemned as racist, sexist, or both.

-Four reasons for why "Heart of Darkness" should be read as literature instead of a historical account or autobiography:
1. The displacement from Conrad to two imaginary narrators, nerither of whom is identified with Conrad
2. Elaborate use of figures and rhetorical devices that make up the "texture of the text." (Most obvious includes similies)
3. "Heart of Darkness" is a "masterwork of irony." The novella is ironic throughout the whole story.
4. The personification of darkness throughout the novella.

-"Heart of Darkness" should be read as a "powerful exemplary revelation of the ideology of capitalist imperialism, including its racism and sexism."