Toward Diasporic Aesthetics A Study Of The Critique Of Planetopia In J. M. Coetzee’s Fiction

The work of Southern African white writers, such as J. M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Andre Brink, Alan Paton, Breyten Breytenbach, is regarded as the international canon of respectable, morally robust and liberal oppositional literature. In "Toward Diasporic Aesthetics:A Study of the Critique of Planetopia in J. M. Coetzee’s Fiction", it will examine the historical outlook, literary view and its representation of diasporic aesthetics in J. M. Coetzee’s fiction, and the metanarrative of this era with the aim of decolonization. Through the literature review of Coetzee’s fiction across the time-line, we get the conclusion that first, the postcolonial and postmodern analysis of Coetzee’s work is valuable in terms of perspectives, while it undertones the elements of native resistance; second, the analysis of the themes of anti-colonization and anti-oppression often stays’on the surface, while lacks in the overall control of his work and the evaluation of the theoretical methodology. Through the introduction of diasporic aesthetics as the theoretical point of view and the critique of planetopia as the perspective, it views the hermeneutics of such phenomenon of cultural violences, cultural obscurantism and cultural oppressions in his work with deep insight, points out such fact that Coetzee’s work is the diasporic literature guided by the blueprint of deconstructive-Maxist pastoral revolution, orienting in decolonization, which consists of a key part of the literature of resistance in contemporary popular culture, and thereby constructs the harmoniously deep cultural aesthetics in which the earth is as honourable as the heaven, and one person is esteemed as equally as the other.The first chapter "Write back the world:diasporic aesthetics in the horizon of planetopia" will explore the historical outlook in Coetzee’s literary creation and the construction of the diasporic subject. It takes advantage of the research from Derrida in which he discovers the elements of coloniality and heterogeneity embedded in the Greek notion "cosmopolis", points out that the historical view of Coetzee’s work is for the representation of the marginal people, which respects the local and the humanistic differences. The construction of the diasporic subjects is mainly through the self-legitimation of such figure as the cleanser in resistance.The second chapter "The aesthetic revolution:diasporic literature and the real choice of decolonization" will discuss the writing strategy, the discourse criticism of diasporic aesthetics and the decolonization of the diasporic fictional style. Through the white writing, Coetzee’s work wedges the platform of autonomous writing; through the sympathetic imagination, it obtains the breakthrough in the decolonization of imagination. The revolution of the pastoral style is the vital component of the discourse criticism of deconstructive-Maxist diasporic aesthetics, meanwhile, the pastoral/countryside is the key standing point and the fundamental perspective in Coetzee’s literary creation. Therefore, the decolonization of the diasporic genre strides toward the new road of the literary genre which differs from the bourgeois writing and represents the possibility of people from the middle and low classes, and reflects vividly the multiple traversing, becoming and creativity of contemporary theory travels.The third chapter "Diffe ranee and revolution:the literary representation in diasporic aesthetics" focuses on the narrative characteristics of diasporic aesthetics. The contemporary theorist Homi Bhabha holds that "there is a radical aesthetic ambiguity embedded in the differance of the colonial beings", such radical aesthetic ray shoulders the main responsibility of changing the society. The first part "The Monologue and the Calls:the Post-imperial Imagination in Foe and Waiting for the Barbarians", through the writing of the silenced and the abject of the marginal people, it demonstrates the field of heterogeneous voices existing in history and different from the mainstream voice. Such field not only calls for the decolonization of human beings’ historical experiences, but re-examines the difference between fortune and misfortune, and the demarcation between savagery and civilization. It renders the idea that the power framework of the empire constructed in Coetzee’s post-imperial hollow cities could be undercut by the countervoices and actions of the marginal, the utopia of the whole human beings can be realized.The second part "The Fathers of Oedipus:the Reconstruction of Family-state Ethics in The Master of Petersburg and The Diary of a Bad Year" will deconstruct the deep rooted image "the Father of Oedipus" in the Classical mythology. Through the deconstruction and revolutionary interpretation of this notion, the Father has dissolved itself into the multiple fathers with various natures in the post-Oedipus era, then the father-son/paternal relationship, which is controlled by the traditional poli-ethical views and set in the such code field, faces the fate of dissolution as well. Both the father and the son should renew their thoughts and souls, and the transition from filiation to affiliation in the paternal relationship also heralds for the true realization and coming of the fraternal relationship where all human being work with one united heart.The third part "The Literary Evolution:Micheal K’s Life&Times and the Diogenes in the Southern Land " will think upon the new literary view and life view reflected in Micheal K’s wandering life in the land, and the status quo of literary creation, which is the media of people’s mind, in the battlefield between the material and the spiritual, the personal and the communal. Micheal K chooses to live a self-sufficient, autonomous diasporic life; the decolonization of K’s identity is not only the reaction against the cruel rule of apartheid in South Africa, but also the fight against the decadent bourgeois cultural and artistic life. Literature, like people’s daily life, should evolve itself along with reflection, struggle and renewal.The conclusion chapter "Diasporic Aesthetics and the Construction of Deep Cultural Aesthetics" will deliver the positive message for diasporic aesthetics, namely, the deep cultural aesthetic construction. In the beautiful line of escape drawing from the diasporic aesthetics, through the strategies of becoming woman, becoming the marginal group, their languages and the minority literature, it provides the living and developing rights for people in the developing world, and contributes for the realization of autonomy of the national and human cultures. Coetzee’s fiction fights against homogeneity and identity through the way of resistant aesthetics and the ethics of refusal, puts a high demand of disinterest upon the intellectuals. Meanwhile, the diasporic aesthetic rewrites the contemporary sublime, for it regards the abject and the marginal as forms of the sublime, and therefore makes the contribution for the construction of a deep cultural aesthetics which is healthy, self-reliant, ethically thoughtful, fresh and applicable to people’s daily needs.