Exploring the "Hermeneutic Vortex," analyzing interpretive dilemmas through Heart of Darkness, identifying how textual paradoxes trigger controversies, and advocating attention to the coexistence of opposing meanings and the possibility of dual interpretations.

1　Interpretive Controversies over Heart of Darkness in Western Criticism

This section reviews the sustained interpretive controversies that Conrad's Heart of Darkness has generated in Western criticism since its publication in 1899. It first outlines the evolutionary trajectory of a century of critical history, from early biographical studies and narratological analysis to the diversification of perspectives including postcolonialism, feminism, and ecocriticism. The core controversies revolve around two dimensions: first, the debate over colonialist and racist tendencies. In 1977, Achebe, adopting an African standpoint, attacked the novel for depicting Africa as the "dark continent" and distorting African images, questioning Conrad's racist inclinations and provoking intense scholarly responses. Scholars such as Watts defended the text using "irony" theory, while contemporary corpus stylistics research has pointed to the existence of unconscious racist elements through keyword analysis. Second, the divergence in feminist criticism: Thompson and others identified patriarchal consciousness and misogyny in the novel, while Hawthorn, Jones, and others emphasized that figures such as the African mistress possess independence and feminist characteristics. The chapter ultimately points out that due to the narrator Marlow's ambiguous and contradictory attitude, simply equating the narrator's viewpoint with the author's position, or determining political stance based on fragmentary descriptions, will plunge interpretation into an indeterminate dilemma.

2　The Paradoxical Writing of Heart of Darkness and Critical Overinterpretation

This section analyzes the interpretive controversies and critical overinterpretation arising from the paradoxical writing in Heart of Darkness. Conrad employs double-layered narration and stream-of-consciousness techniques to construct a dreamlike, ambiguous textual world. The narrator Marlow, continuously severed from reality during his voyage, drifts in and out of consciousness, his attitude vacillating between binary oppositions such as civilization and savagery, white and black, his language full of contradictions and uncertainty. However, Western critics often presuppose positions of (anti-)colonialism, imperialism, racism, or misogyny, using the text as material to demonstrate theory, searching backward from conclusions for fragmentary evidence, falling into the vicious circle of coercive interpretation and neglecting the non-cognitive, ambiguity-generating essence of literature. Specifically, the text's depiction of African natives both strongly condemns the devilish acts of colonial enslavement and acknowledges their humanity and rights, while also viewing them as savage, stupid "savages"; toward female images, it both expresses patriarchal contempt through characters like the aunt, believing women live in illusory beauty, and portrays Kurtz's fiancée with tender brushstrokes as pure and loyal, and the African woman as noble, dignified, confident, and flamboyant, making her independent of men like a ruler. This "both...and..." contradictory writing forms the "hermeneutic vortex"—two sets of metalanguages refusing to yield, two opposite interpretations paradoxically coexisting with equal validity, preventing readers from penetrating the textual fog to determine the author or narrator's clear position and tendency.

3　The Hermeneutic Vortex and the Possibility of "Dual Interpretation"

This section explores the phenomenon of the hermeneutic vortex in literary texts and the "dual interpretation" possibility it brings. Taking Conrad's Heart of Darkness as an example, it points out that the contradictory and ambiguous writing in the text creates rich interpretive space, yet many critics pre-position fixed standpoints, selecting evidence favorable to themselves while avoiding the vortex, resulting in partial interpretations. In fact, the opposing meanings regarding imperialism, colonialism, racism, and gender attitudes in the text coexist and mutually cancel each other, making the clear definition of the author's position an impossible and unnecessary task. Just as in the duck-rabbit figure, conflicting interpretations can coexist rather than cancel each other out. Scholars such as Said and Brantlinger employ the "dual interpretation" method to simultaneously present Conrad's contradictory nature of both criticizing and accommodating imperialism, arguing that impressionist technique serves as the link connecting opposing tendencies, thereby demonstrating the text's complex three-dimensionality. It emphasizes that critics should perceive the hermeneutic vortex, accept the rationality of opposite meanings, avoid simplistic black-and-white positioning, and calmly accept the coexistence of contradictory meanings, thereby more comprehensively and deeply excavating the connotations of the work.