Karen Blixen - Isak Dinesen home

Question 67: "Africa" as symbol?

Q. I am a student writing a paper on the role of Africa as the setting in the novel Out of Africa. Does Africa take the role of another character or can it be thought of in some other figurative sense?

A. With any great literature, all interpretations are possible.

In addition to what you have suggested, note that in beginning Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen doesn't mention a name for the place she is describing. (This is also true of Conrad's Heart of Darkness.) This allows you to accept the symbolic nature of Africa.

I have often thought that "Africa" really stands for the feeling of rapture Karen Blixen felt while she was there--including her love for her husband and for Denys Finch Hatton, but also for the natives, the land, and the wild creatures.

Deconstructionists who think in a literal manner have misunderstood Isak Dinesen's symbolism. They are offended because, they point out, Africa is a diverse continent; and, they claim, she should be specific about which country she means. Those who read "Africa" as symbolic avoid such politically correct misunderstandings.

From the perspective of Romantic philosophy, "Africa" (a dream in which all life is free) may be interpreted as Paradise, juxtaposed against the odiousness of industrial society (where life is controlled by rules and necessities).

Copyright © 2003 by Linda Donelson. All rights reserved.