Oppression And Resistance:A Feminist Study On J. M.Coetzee’s In The Heart Of The Country

John Maxwell Coetzee is second to Nadine Gordimer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in the South Africa. He is especially famous for his concise and implicit writing style, unique and penetrating point of view. The marginal group is his focus and people’s self-redemption in adversity is what he intends to show. For the novel In the Heart of the Country, it is the second book by Coetzee. The novel is put under the structure of dairy form and a woman is chosen as the major narrator to make confession, to inspect into her confined life and to outcry her accusation of being the outcast of history.This novel mainly tells a story about a white old spinster who is under the oppression of patriarchy in the apartheid Africa. On the one hand, she is longing for the love from her father, from male and desires to be a complete woman; on the other hand, she holds a strong hatred towards her father’s superiority, the servants’ heartlessness and her lonely state of life. Therefore, she tries her utmost to make accusation and even takes terrible revenge upon her father, the oppressor, in her imagination. After her second action of patricide, she attempts to establish an equal and democratic relationship with the black servant Hendrik and Klein Anna; however, all her efforts are in vain. The long colonial oppression has deeply rooted the hatred between the white and the black, and it is worsening towards the opposite direction in the new era, that is to say, the black is trying to revenge upon the white. At last, all Magda is hoping for come to noting and she is discarded on this lonely farm in the inner land.This paper is constructed on the basis of feminist theory and intends to explore the oppression the three major female characters (Magda, her mother and Klein Anna) has suffered in the patriarchal family and in the society where whites dominates everything. Meanwhile, it gives an analysis on the diary form in accordance with Foucault’s theory of power and discourse as well as Cixous’s "feminine writing", for such genre helps women to strive for discourse right and subject authority. Finally, it discusses how Coetzee succeeded in helping women to subvert patriarchal tradition and colonial system by deconstructing male images and constructing female images at the same timeThe main body of the thesis includes three parts:Chapter one analyzes the three major female characters’(Magda, her mother and klein Anna) identity as the Other respectively. In general, they are under three binary opposition relationships. Magda’s mother is an obedient the Other under husband authority; Magda is a rebellious the Other under father authority but with a consciousness of resistance; Klein Anna is the Other under multiple oppressions. She not only suffers oppression from the male but also from her own kind, therefore, she is the Other of the Other.Chapter two mainly concerns on the writing techniques of this novel. First, it analyses the function of first-person narration in striving for female discourse and subject authority; then it turns to the diary novel’s characters as authenticity and closure in making the female express themselves truthfully, thus, strengthen the reliability of the text; finally, it comes to the content of dairy itself. Since diary provides an effective way for women to write themselves, it helps them to return to the center of literature and most importantly, to the center of power.Chapter three explores the construction and deconstruction of gender image in Coetzee’s books. On the one hand, Coetzee achieved to subvert patriarchy and colonialism by giving his male character a decaying body and depriving their voice and name; on the other hand, Coetzee portrayed his female characters as positive, delicate and endowed them with new thoughts. By doing so, women were able to return to the center position.In a word, by conducting analysis on the characters and writing techniques in Coetzee’s book, we could know his concerns on the marginal group, especially the female group, as well as his proficient writing skills.