Transformation Of Rayment’s Self-consciousness Under Disability Boundary Situation In Slow Man

John Maxwell Coetzee is a white South African novelist.His masterpiece Slow Man focuses on Rayment who is an elderly immigrant.The novel portrays that the protagonist becomes a “slow man” due to abrupt accident and starts to his search for himself.This novel has been studied in the West from such themes like the novel form,immigration and photography,representation and the real,intertextuality and so on while it has not received much attention in China.This thesis analyzes the transformation of the protagonist’s self-consciousness in different phases of disability boundary situation in the light of Karl Jaspers’ s and Rollo May’s existentialism theory.The concept of “boundary situation/limit situation” is proposed by German existentialist philosopher Karl Jaspers in Philosophy2,which refers to a state of human existence that can undermine the foundation of individual existence but stimulate the possibility of individual self-realization.In the meantime,Rollo May proposes that self-consciousness is a symbol of human nature,and people’s search for themselves depends on the recovery of self-consciousness.The protagonist Rayment in Slow Man falls into disability boundary situation due to an accident.In the disability boundary situation,he experiences self-isolation upon abrupt occurrence,self-reflection in the hesitation phase and finally self-reconciliation upon transcending the disability boundary situation.This thesis analyzes Rayment’s psychological states from “isolation” to“reflection” and finally to “reconciliation” in the three stages of encounter,hesitation,and transcendence of the disability boundary situation in three chapters.The first chapter analyzes Rayment’s self-isolation when encountering disability boundary situation.The occurrence of the disability boundary situation results in the collapse of the personal world,and Rayment is distressed by his maimed body and isolates himself from others.In the meantime,he is aware of the aggravation of rootlessness as an immigrant in Australia due to the abrupt occurrence of the disability boundary situation.The second chapter expounds Rayment’s self-reflection when hesitating in disability boundary situation.Boundary situation has dual aspect,so Rayment reflects on his past life profoundly and contemplates the existential meaning.With his mutilated body,Rayment hesitates to accept the reality of “lesser man”.He begins to communicate with others and regrets not having a complete family,and reflects on his three immigrant experiences as a foreigner.The third chapter analyzes Rayment’s self-reconciliation in transcending the disability boundary situation.Boundary situation provides the possibility of achieving selfhood,so he starts to accept his incomplete body and treats others with selfless love,making up the absence of love by giving love.At the same time,as an immigrant,Rayment preserves Australian photographs as a means to relieve rootlessness and strengthen ethnic integration.Through the analysis of the protagonist’s self-consciousness in the disability boundary situation in Slow Man,this thesis essentially indicates the restlessness and inner consciousness of the disabled when facing the boundary situation in Australia.It explores the changes of the disabled’s self-consciousness which derive from disability boundary situation,including the view of maimed body and the attitude towards interpersonal relationship as well as the cognition of immigrant identity,which shows the author’s humanistic care for the disabled and their existential predicament in Australia and thus calls on people to treat the disabled with respect and care.