The Self-construction Of The "Jesus Trilogy" In The Existentialist Perspective

The South African-Australian writer John Maxwell Coetzee is one of the most important writers in the world today,known for his exquisite textual structure and deep philosophical thinking.His recent "Jesus Trilogy" : The Childhood of Jesus,The Schooldays of Jesus,and The Death of Jesus focus more on abstract ideas and reflections than his previous works,and are filled with unanswered philosophical debates and life questions.In a form of fiction and allegory,the trilogy places the two immigrants who have lost their memories,Simon and David,in a brand new environment,and depicts the journey of these two protagonists to explore the possibilities of life and humanity in the emptiness of losing themselves.Taking Heidegger’s philosophy of existentialism as a theoretical perspective,this paper analyzes Simon and David’s self-construction process of overcoming nothingness and finding the meaning of existence.The main part of the paper is divided into three chapters.The first part elaborates on the characters’ state of being in nothingness,specifically the nothingness of the world in which Simon and David live,and the situation of nothingness they face at the social and individual levels.The second part analyzes the characters’ self-discovery process of finding the meaning of existence under the situation of nothingness,and tries to explore the possibility of existence by re-examining the three elements that constitute the human spirit: reason,passion,and faith.The third part explains the ways of existence constructed by the characters after their selfsearching attempts,which are existence in literary fantasy,existence in symbiosis with the other,and existence in death,corresponding to three different modes of dealing with nothingness,namely,perpetuating nothingness,moving away from nothingness,and transcending nothingness.These three ways of dealing with nothingness expand the possibilities of the characters’ existence,prompting them to move from nothingness to existence step by step,and through experimenting with different ways of existence,they finally complete the selfconstruction process of giving meaning to their own existence from nothingness.The "Jesus Trilogy" draws out metaphysical thoughts on issues such as existence and nothingness,and ultimate meaning through the characters’ quest,and explores the way humans should exist through the possibilities of existence presented by the characters,inspiring contemporary people to examine their current state of existence and give real meaning to life.