He And His Character

John Maxwell Coetzee, the Noble Prize winner in literature in2003, is thesecond South African laureate following Nadine Gordimer in1991. With profoundhumanities and cautious moral consciousness, his works are characterized bytheoretical and practical consciousness. Being an outsider, Coetzee keeps hisconscience and critical thinking as an intellectual. Both in real life and his writing, hepossesses an attitude of detachment. And his works deconstruct power as well asmove readers with humanistic concern. Starting with an analysis of the social contextof South Africa, the writer’s living environment, this thesis studies the causes andcontents of Coetzee’s personality, and to analyze its influence on the writer’s view onbiography and his autobiography writing.This thesis consists of five chapters. The＂Introduction＂ presents the life andcreations of J. M. Coetzee, and emphasizes his autobiographical trilogy. Through anoverall review of the Coetzee criticism of recent years, I found some deficiencies, andproceed to put forward the problems and significance of the study.The first chapter deals with the internal and external reasons for Coetzee’spersonality. In the complicated context of South Africa, the disgrace of unjustcolonialism, untraditional family factor and bicultural background all contribute to thefeeling of solitude and confusion during his growth. The identity crisis leads to hissense of being on the fringe of society, causing the multifold identities and uncertaintyof cultural identification. Therefore, Coetzee forms a unique outsider personality witha sense of solitude and fringe consciousness.The second chapter focuses on the influence of the writer’s personality on hisstyle of autobiography writing. Detaching from all systems with a cruel sensitivenessand stubbornness, the unique personality enables Coetzee a peculiar point of view andunderstanding towards himself and the world at large. Differing from traditionalautobiography, Coetzee’s autobiography carry on the form of autrebiography, which provides a possibility to seek the inner truth through objective observation of the pasthimself.The third chapter explores his trilogy of autobiographies, namely Boyhood, Youthand Summertime. The images presented by this trilogy involve a child trapped inidentity crisis, a youth seeking identity and art in England, and an adult reviewing hisego artistically. Throughout the analysis, his strenuous effort to probe his ego and hismind on the way to become an artist are revealed.In conclusion, the inborn identity displacement and acquired cultural alienationresult in Coetzee’s unique personality. Form forced alienation to conscious one, hedevelops a detached attitude and writing style. His trilogy of autobiography whichconsists of Boyhood, Youth and Summertime, offers an artistic summery and retrospectof his life. Out of the clear understanding of the world and a demand for higher ethicstandard, he refuses to seek eternity as well as solace to become＂the few happy＂.