Environmental Imperialism in Joseph Conrad's Nostromo

Abstract

Long considered an exposé of American and British economic imperialism, Joseph Conrad's Nostromo is much more an inquiry into the processes and consequences of environmental imperialism, in which political and economic imperialism are directly connected to the environmental exploitation of a fictitious South American silver mine. During the course of the novel, however, nature appears not as the servant of humanity but rather as a co-existent autonomy that is resistant to human exploitation, and humanity's attempts to subjugate nature only result in the subjugation of those who would exploit it.