An Analysis Of The Authenticity And Fictionality Of J.M. Coetzee’s Autobiographical Trilogy

John Maxwell Coetzee is the winner of 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature. His autobiographical trilogy Boyhood, Youth and Summertime inform readers of the protagonist’s life story from a little boy to a distinguished writer.Boyhood, written in 1997, is mainly about the little boy John’s childhood from eight to thirteen years old. The story is set in South Africa, and the whole story focuses on the father-son and mother-son relationships. Youth was written in 2003 and serves as the continuation of Boyhood. It centers on young John’s life from nineteen to twenty-four years old. In this book, the little boy grows up and runs away to London to seek his root. The book portrays a young man drowning deeply in anxiety and self-suspicion who hopes to be accepted by others in a weird way, and he is thus reduced to an evader from society. In the last book Summertime, which was completed in 2009, Coetzee makes full use of the actual situation with subtle memoir style: the famous writer Coetzee is dead; a young British writer is to write the biography for him in order to discover Coetzee’s ghostly middle-aged years.This thesis intends to interpret the autobiographical nature of J.M.Coetzee’s autobiographical trilogy from the perspective of the autobiographical theory. Apart from Introduction and Conclusion, this thesis is divided into three chapters. In Chapter One, not only autobiography and autobiographical theory are introduced, but also the dual nature of autobiography is studied. The difference between autobiography and autobiographical novel is also analyzed. This thesis further defines Coetzee’s trilogy as autobiography according to Homi K. Bhabha’s post-colonial theory and Lejeune’s autobiographical theory. The nature of autobiography is dissected from two aspects: authenticity and fictionality. Making use of dual natures of autobiography as the breakthrough points, this thesis takes advantage of Zhao Baisheng’s “three dimensional facts” theory to analyze the authenticity of J.M. Coetzee’s autobiographical trilogy. According to his definition of fictionality, this thesis analyzes its fictionality.In Chapter Two, this thesis discusses the authenticity of J.M.Coetzee’s autobiographical trilogy which is proved by three dimensional facts in autobiography. Biographical researcher Zhao Baisheng puts forward “three dimensional facts” theory. According to his opinion, facts in autobiography can be classified into three types: autobiographical fact, biographical fact and historical fact. In J.M.Coetzee’s autobiographical trilogy, Coetzee’s autobiographical facts tell readers what happens to him. There are two main autobiographical facts: the fact about his character that he is lonely and always in anxiety. The narrations about his parents’ and lovers’ influence on him are affluent biographical facts. At last, the writings of the racial segregation and his special family background are the historical facts which have played a significant role in Coetzee’s growth. Three dimensional facts shape a real Coetzee and prove the authenticity of the trilogy.In Chapter Three, this thesis explores the fictionality of J.M.Coetzee’s autobiographical trilogy which is revealed through the use of narrative techniques. Narrative technique is a major literary technique in Coetzee’s autobiographical trilogy, so it constitutes technical fiction in the trilogy. According to Zhao Baisheng’s definition to fictionality, the author uses some theories of narratology to analyze the narrative devices including narrative perspective, narrative order and duration. They endow Coetzee’s autobiographical trilogy with a great deal of artistic significance and show the artistic fictionality of these three books. Then, the function of technical fiction will be revealed. Technical fiction contributes to Coetzee’s show of a textual story which corresponds to a truthful African society in the 1950 s and the 1970 s. What’s more, it helps readers know a real Coetzee fully.These three works are closely related with each other. They can be taken as Coetzee’s autobiographical trilogy. These three books reflect Coetzee’s life, including the life of a shy little boy who cannot get along well with his family, an ambitious young man and a university professor. In these three books, Coetzee offers readers a lot of facts in different times. By using authentically and fictionality, Coetzee show readers a real Coetzee.