The Multiple Dimensions Of The Other In Coetzee’s Novels

J.M. Coetzee, a South African English writer and Nobel Laureate in2003,provides world literature as a bystander in the postmodernist context with groupimages of the Other in his12novels of high quality written experimentally withallegories in about40years. Through the symbolic images of the Other, the author hasmade profound speculations on the issues of common concern, such as humancivilization, humanity, equality and justice, ethical morality, etc., attracting extensiveattention from the academia worldwide. Coetzee has been studied at different levelsfrom different perspectives including ideology, psychoanalysis, narratology, etc.However, the study of the Other in Coetzee’s novels remains superficial withoutin-depth or systematic exploration in the postmodernist and postcolonial context.This dissertation studies from multiple dimensions the Other in four importantnovels of J.M. Coetzee, i.e. Waiting for the Barbarians, Life and Times of Michael K,Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons. This exploration concerns therepresentation of the Other in Coetzee’s novels, the connotation and denotation of theOther, the historical origin of the Other, the relationship of the Other with the reality,the causes of Coetzee’s preference to the presentation of group images of the Other,and his philosophical speculations over the Other, intending to find the revelations ofCoetzee’s creation of group images of the Other to the development of postcolonialtheory and the enrichment of postmodernist theory, to the literary creation andcriticism, and his contribution to world literature from themes to genres.This dissertation maintains that Coetzee’s unique background and experiences,including his Afrikaans identity, his English education in South Africa, his root-seeking experiences in the UK, his estrangement in the “free” USA, his spiritualalienation after his reluctant return to South Africa, and his meditation over issues ofcommon concern after his migration to Adelaide, Australia, have endowed him withidiosyncrasy of a writer as the Other to the West. Coetzee has demonstrated in the characterization of group images of the Other his criticism of the cruel rationalismand cosmetic morality of Western civilization by exposing the colonial hegemony andbloody violence of the time, the nature of imperial civilization, the political attributeof justice, the equal rights of life for all species, the instinctive resistance of life tooutside oppression, the attribute of artificiality of ethical morality, etc. Coetzee’sallegorical presentation of the relationship between macro-history and micro-history,between written record and historical truth, shows the Other’s subversion of thehistorical authority and deconstruction of the basis of ideology behind it. The nationaltrauma, the history and the present situation of the black-white relation in SouthAfrica Coetzee discloses in his novels and his meditation over these issues, showexplicitly the idea he advocates: respect the difference and tolerate the diversity. Thedistinct feature of otherness in Coetzee’s novels manifests his initiative spirit of theOther: never chime in with the mainstream convention of literature.The dissertation consists of four chapters in addition to an introduction and aconclusion. Every chapter discusses one novel. With the application of mainly thepostcolonial and postmodernist theories, the four chapters discuss separately fromdifferent dimensions the representation of the Other, the connotation and denotationof the Other and the author’s speculations, and at the same time they form an organicwhole for the multiple dimensions of the Other make group images of the Other allthe more significant. In the process of argumentation, the theory of the Other isemployed in a dominant way throughout the discussion, while other theories play anancillary role in discussion since Coetzee has made speculations in different novels.The auxiliary theories include the theory of trauma, the theory of justice, the theory ofpower and discourse, the theory of psychoanalysis, the theory of feminism, etc. Themajor and auxiliary theories form a strong support for the critical discussion, helpingreveal the intention of Coetzee’s creation of group images of the Other.The introduction to the dissertation contains first of all a comment on Coetzee’sliterary achievements and his literary position, pointing out that the Nobel Prize andother international prizes he has won witness his indisputably important place in thehistory of world literature. Presented then are the theme, purpose and significance of the study, with the major argument that a research on Coetzee’s novels supported bythe theory of the Other from the colonial-hegemonic, post-Christian, post-apartheidand post-modern dimensions, provides a new approach to the Coetzee study, broad-ening the horizon of novel reception and criticism, and contributing to the enrichmentof postcolonial and postmodernist theories. The introductory part, tracing back to thephilosophical and literary origin of the theory of the Other used here, gives a distinctliterary definition of the Other for the dissertation before an overview of the mainideas of this research and the layout of the dissertation.The first chapter discusses from the dimension of colonial hegemony Coetzee’snovel Waiting for the Barbarians chosen by Penguin for its series Great Books of the20th Century by adopting the postcolonial theory and the theory of the Other. It isfound that Coetzee, by allegorically using the fictitious Empire in the novel, disclosesthe essence of the imperial civilization, arranges intentionally racial other, sex otherand identity other for the Empire with colonial hegemonic discourse and makesin-depth speculations over the issues of human civilization and barbarism, justice andinjustice, etc. This chapter, after a critical analysis of Coetzee’s reflection with the aidof new historicism and theory of justice, finds that behind the veil of the author’sreclusiveness is his strong sense of responsibility to history and reality.The second chapter discusses the first Booker Prize winning novel Life and Timesof Michael K from the dimension of post-Christian authoritarianism. After a criticalanalysis of the political situation in post-Christian South Africa and the images of theOther in the society of violence, it discusses by adopting Foucault’s theory of powerand discourse the apparently passive but actually effective coping strategy for themarginalized other in fleeing from the society in turbulence when the apartheid cameinto being and to prosperity. Further discussed are Coetzee’s speculations over theissues of trauma, history, power and discipline, etc. This chapter insists that the resist-ance in form of silence Michael K the humble Other holds against authoritarianismshows that the author, in exposing the atrocity, isolation and hatred of human society,revealing the nature of the so-called rationality and justice of Western civilization andcriticizing its ethical morality, speaks for the weak group of the marginalized Other and protests against the unequal society.The third chapter discusses from the dimension of the post-apartheid power-shiftthe second Booker Prize winning novel Disgrace, which “may well have paved theway for the2003award to the writer of the Nobel Prize in Literature”. This chapterfirst discusses the changes in black-white relation after the expiration of the apartheid,and discovers that the practice of the democratic system has not eradicated the racialsegregation in people’s spirit and the subversion of the White’s discourse powerresults only in the marginalization and otherization of the White. With the help of thetheory of power and discourse and the feminist theory, it explores the destiny of thewhite minority after their loss of protection by the preferential policies and regulations.Then is an investigation of the inevitable self exile and self-otherization of the whiteonce in dominant position with the application of contract principle, the concept of“desirous body” and the theory of “will-to-power”. This chapter believes that Coetzeespeculates over the sex ethics and human morality by making use of the experiencesof the deprived and otherized white in the post-apartheid era, and meditates over theprice the white should pay and the responsibility the white should take for thehistorical memory by exploiting the events of the white being robbed and gang raped.Demonstrated in the novel are the author’s hope of human reconciliation and peacefulco-existence, and his idea of harmonious symbiosis of different species in nature.Chapter four studies from the dimension of the postmodernist discourse the oftendisputable novel Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons, the first published after Coetzee’smigration to Australia in the21stcentury, discussing his novel of otherness throughthe image of the differential Other. With a critical summary of Coetzee’s novels, thechapter holds that in the postmodernist context of representation crisis, Coetzeebecomes known in world literature for his differential otherness, offering brand newmodels with his constant experiments for literary creation and displaying dexterouslyimages of the differential Other. Then, it studies the typical image of the differentialOther in the novel Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons and explores the connotation ofthe differential Other and the causes of otherness. The chapter believes that Coetzee,by the performance of the differential Other, the conflict between the speech of Costello the Other and the narrative of the book, the viewpoints of the heroine indifferent lectures, the patterns of narration and ending in the novel, reveals his literaryidea of presenting the differential Other in discordance with mainstream conventionand displaying otherness to show his innovation. Coetzee’s attempts provide a newgenre for novel writing and a noteworthy referential sample for the enrichment ofnovel connotation.The conclusive part reviews the research process, related research arguments andthe achievements made before reaching the conclusion: in postmodernist context,Coetzee allegorically creates group images of the Other and displays his speculationthrough these images over the issues of common concern of human beings. Thesignificance of the achievements lies in that the research has unveiled group images ofthe Other in Coetzee’s novels, made a critical study of the novels of Coetzee bymeans of distinctly defined theory of the Other from multiple dimensions and at thesame time decoded the relationship among the images of the Other in his novels, andthat between the Other and the author, based on Coetzee’s speeches in interviews,existing research results and the particularities of the South African society, providinga beneficial reference for the further study of Coetzee.