Refusig Commpromise

South African writer John Maxwell Coetzee (1940-) is one of the most influential writers in contemporary world literature. A dashingly versatile and prolific writer, Coetzee has produced fourteen novels and many books of essays and critical works. He has won the Booker McConnell Prize twice, which makes him the first to receive this honor in world literature. His literary career reached its culmination when Nobel Prize was bestowed upon him in 2003.In Doubling the Point:Essays and Interviews (1992), Coetzee points to the purpose of his writing:"I, as a person, as a personality, am overwhelmed, that my thinking is thrown into confusion and helplessness, by the fact of suffering in the world, and not only human suffering. These fictional constructions of mine are paltry, ludicrous defenses against that being-overwhelmed, and to me, transparently so." This dissertation seeks to offer an investigation of Coetzee's disappointments with and denunciation of the realities of this world. All his life, Coetzee moved from one country to another in search of a world less brought down by suffering. He was repeatedly let down, but he has refused compromises with suffering, violence, hatred and indifference. He aspires to a harmonious world of justice and selfless love but sees everywhere nothing but violence and oppression. He left for England in 1961 out of his dissatisfaction with South Africa, only to find a cultural desert with similar injustices. He went to America in 1965, where the imperial hegemony is no less abominable and disheartening. His return in 1972 to South Africa, where violent racial conflicts still constituted a major aspect of that country's social milieu, ended in his total despair and detestation, which drove him afar to further emigrate to Australia. Predictably, no paradisial peace and harmony was found there, and clearly Coetzee's quest for an ideal country remains to be continued in his fictional world. Behind novels of different phases in his literary career, there is demonstrably a disappointed but uncompromising Coetzee who finds no satisfaction in reality yet accepts nothing less than what he demands of it. This dissertation makes an analysis through a close reading of four groups of his novels of Coetzee's attitudes towards his literary creation and his outlook on the world we live in.This dissertation is divided into six parts. The "Introduction" presents a general sketch of Coetzee's literary background, giving specificity to the influence exerted by his character and experiences on his "irreconcilable" attitude to the imperfections of the world. Through an overall review of the Coetzee criticism of recent years, I contend that there has not been sufficient emphasis on his ethical articulation. This dissertation argues that Coetzee's fiction writing gives expression to a persistent dissatisfaction with the world in which we live in.Chapter One discusses Coetzee's disappointments with British Empire. For Coetzee, ex-colonials always have an inferiority complex. They are dissatisfied with their homeland and full of fantasies about the metropolis. Coetzee, with skill and dexterity in his literary creation, subverts the myths about the British society, which to him is characterized by a hopeless state of racial discrimination and social injustice. For him, London is not a high culture hub and the philistinism of the Londoners is depressing.Chapter Two focuses on Coetzee's depiction of the American-style hegemonic empire in Waiting for the Barbarians. The empire needs a "barbarian" enemy to bear the consequences of its domestic conflicts and flaunt its self-importance. The nomadic tribe outside the borders is constructed as barbarians and then attacked. Coetzee unveils the process of that construction and lays bare the hegemony of Empire and its barbarity. It exposes the deformed humanity in the Empire through a panoramic view of the "barbarians"—some are punished by Empire due to their support of justice; some have to succumb to hegemony although they support justice; others go along with the evil-doer and give support to hegemony.Chapter Three looks into Coetzee's fictions set in South Africa such as Life and Times of Michael K, Age of Iron and Disgrace. In the 1980s, South Arica was torn with racial conflicts and violence. The whites were complicit in racial crimes. Coetzee supports racial equality, but he disapproves of the militant vengefulness of the blacks. To him, the violent struggle of the blacks repeated the injustices of racialist history, bringing no peace in post-apartheid South Africa. Coetzee is also against what TRC does to alleviate racial hostility and he holds that the whites should live in disgrace for salvation.Chapter Four examines Coetzee's representation of Australia in Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons and Slow Man. The first part of this chapter is about the double-marginalization of the female writers. Coetzee depicts women writers as a marginalized community in this phallocentric society. And he portrays writers who struggle while trying to please the mainstream literary institutions, e.g. the publishers, readers and critics to win acceptance. The second part of this chapter focuses on the life of the immigrants living under the pressure of mainstream society in Australia.In the "Conclusion", a comparison is made between Coetzee and some other post-colonialist writers. It is revealed that Coetzee, like other writers from the Third World, moved to the metropolis with all his literary aspirations, but his consistent pursuit of a world of ethical perfection makes him different. Coetzee has lived in several countries, but none of them became his spiritual home. His perfect world is one with justice, equality and selfless love. It looks like his pursuit of such a good world would have yet to continue.