A Study On The Body Image In Coetzee’s Novels

As a writer with a high sense of social responsibility and humanism,J.M.Coetzee has always cared for the marginalised groups in society,including the indigenous South Africans who were oppressed during the colonial period,the white women who were ravaged in a patriarchal society,and the elderly who are discriminated against in modern society.Thus,in his work,he shows the disadvantaged groups of human society excluded from the margins of society and deprived of the right to speak of their suffering and misery.Thus,Coetzee uses the body as the focal point of his fictional narrative,revealing the tragic fate of these marginalised people through the narrative of their traumatised bodies,in order to see K social concern and care.This thesis uses the body image as an entry point to analyse the content of the work itself,revealing how the writer narrates the physical trauma of the marginalised,and then finding the author’s critical targets and solutions.The first chapter of this thesis analyses Coetzee’s meticulous portrayal of the colonial practice of mutilating the bodies of indigenous South Africans,pointing out that the bodies of indigenous South Africans were the objects of colonial governance.Coetzee focuses on the double oppression and abuse of the indigenous South African body during the colonial era: firstly,the indigenous body was stigmatised as an animal body and subjected to all kinds of violence by the colonisers.Secondly,as the indigenous spirit became numb and submissive under physical violence and bodily discipline,they became walking corpses and their bodies lost their vitality.The second chapter deals with Coetzee’s interpretation of the female body image.White women were suppressed by masculine discourses and their bodily claims were in a state of extreme repression.After the end of the colonial era,white women were still subjected to endless abuse and forced to be the bearers of colonial guilt.By depicting the illnesses and traumas of the white female body,shows that the female body has been reduced to a field of male power.The third chapter deals with the body image of the elderly as presented in Coetzee’s work.Coetzee argues that contemporary Western society has entered a period of ageing,yet the bodies of the elderly have become symbols of the utilitarian culture practised in Western society,and the survival of the elderly is not optimistic.Therefore,Coetzee writes about the discrimination and trampling of the elderly due to their decaying bodies,revealing the pain and suffering they endure and drawing attention to their salvation.The fourth chapter analyses how Coetzee explores the causes of and solutions to the physical oppression suffered by marginalised groups in society.The body image in Coetzee’s work marks the loss of dignity and the humiliation suffered by marginalised groups.In Coetzee’s view,the dominant conception of Western culture has been one of contempt for the body,leading to a lack of respect and compassion for life,resulting in human beings abandoning their own bodies and those of others at will.Reflecting on Western culture,Coetzee actively sought a solution.As a result,Coetzee proposed vegetarianism as a way to raise awareness of the reverence for life and the consciousness of guarding the body.