An Interpretation Of Cultural Identity Problems In J.M. Coetzee’s Autobiography Novels

John Maxwell Coetzee was born on February9,1940in Cape Town, SouthAfrica. As a Dutch immigrant, he was brought up in the years when the apartheidpolicy formed and prevailed. J. M. Coetzee was awarded with the Nobel Prize inLiterature in2003, and he is also the first writer awarded with the Booker Prize fortwice in the world. Coetzee began his novel creation in1969, and he has published14novels so far. In addition, he also published several symposiums, such as InnerWorking: Literary Essays, Stranger Shores and Doubling the Point: Essays andInterviews, and two experimental novels, The Lives of Animal and Elizabeth Costello:Eight Lessons.Coetzee has published three autobiography novels which are Boyhood, Youth andSummer, respectively. Here I only choose Boyhood and Youth as my target texts toanalyze its cultural identity problems. The two novels share a lot of commons innarrative strategy, such as the third person, present tense and full of psychologicaldescription, which keep the author stand away from the novel and help interpret thethoughts of the protagonist in the novels. The novel Boyhood which was published in1997describes the lives of John (9to13years old) in Worcester, Cape Town. Theprotagonist finds the difference of language, family background, religion and politicstandings between his family and other Afrikaners. Thus, the author thinks a lot interms of John’s British identity. While the novel Youth which was published in2002,describes the lives of John (19to24years old) in England, where John began topursue the British identity, but finally John failed to be accepted as an English man,for the real English do not regard him as an English.As the research hotspot in theory of post-colonialism, cultural identity now hasattracted more and more scholars to analyze and research. And Jorge Larrian also said,“The issues on cultural identity will arouse, only if it exist conflicts and asymmetriesduring cultural collisions regardless of the forms--intrusion, colonial activities, andwhatever”. Based on the research of Coetzee and its works in recent years and Coetzee’s Diaspora experiences, this paper in perspective of post-colonialism theory,adopts the Stuart Hall and Homi Bhabha’s cultural identity theory to interpret thecultural identity problems in J. M. Coetzee’s autobiography novels. Then it analyzesthe double identities and its cultural significance to Coetzee and his work creation.Finally, it demonstrates the significance to realize the ideal cultural identity duringcultural collisions, communication and blending progress.This paper consists of an introduction part, the conclusion part and three mainparts. The introduction part aims to introduce the background, including the authorand the novels; Secondly it introduces the research status both at home and aboard;and finally it introduces the significance of research topics and keywords, and thestructure of this paper. Based on textual close reading for Boyhood, the first chaptermainly analyzes the protagonist John’s British identity with Stuart Hall and HomiBhabha’s cultural identity theory; The second chapter mainly analyzes the methodsJohn (the protagonist in Youth) adopts to pursue its British identity, which includesthe escape from Mother’s care, the find of a woman to ignite the poet’s enthusiasmand the entry of England social circles etc. The last chapter mainly analyzes thefamily and social backgrounds for the forming of Coetzee’s dual identities, and themultiple thinking perspectives and cultural significance to J. M. Coetzee. Theconclusion part firstly summarizes the overall contents and main arguments, thenlinks with the situation that more and more people enjoy the multiple identities in theworld to analyze the reality significance of cultural identity.