DOCSLIB.ORG

A Goatseye View of the Stone Desert Life & Times of Michael K

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Goatseye View of the Stone Desert Life & Times of Michael K A Goatseye View of the Stone Desert 2 ¹ Life & Times of Michael K HE DESIRE FOR TRANSCENDENCE so evident in the earlier novels gains a structural dimension in Life & Times of Michael T K, Foe, and Age of Iron. The principal feature of these three novels is the opposition they inscribe between the realm of history and a setting that putatively transcends this realm. In Life & Times of Michael K, this setting is the insular Karoo farm, in Foe, the island, and, in Age of Iron, Mrs Curren’s dilapidated old house. By staging a forfeiture of sub- ject-centred consciousness, these utopian settings suggest the possibility of a relational mode that is wholly different from what has shaped the realm of history that they apparently transcend, and, in the process, pro- vide an image of that whose absence has enabled the colonial history of South Africa. The occurrence of these utopian settings in Coetzee’s fiction of the late-apartheid period cannot but be related to the aforementioned desire of this writer to write fiction that “rivals” rather than “supplements” the con- flictual relations out of which South Africa’s history has “erected itself.”1 While I do explore this self-reflexive dimension of Coetzee’s depiction of Michael K’s utopian existence on the farm in my reading of Life & Times of Michael K, my ultimate argument is that the purpose of this portrayal is not simply to project a relational mode that is non-existent in history, but to affect the reader in such a way that his or her reading of this novel enacts the very relationship of which s/he reads. Importantly, in Life & Times of Michael K, the farm is not initially shown as an “autonomous place”;2 it only becomes so after Michael K undergoes a Bildung of sorts. On first visiting the farm, this character 1 Coetzee, “The Novel Today,” 2–3. 2 “The Novel Today,” 3. 38 SECRETARY OF THE INVISIBLE º dominates nature, as is evident in the following description of his hunting of the goats: Almost under his feet one slipped and slid, kicking like a fish in the mud to regain its footing. K hurled the whole weight of his body upon it. [...] He could feel the goat’s hindquarters heaving beneath him; it bleated again and again in terror; its body jerked in spasms. K strad- dled it, clenched his hands around its neck, and bore down with all his strength, pressing the head under the surface of the water and into the thick ooze below. The hindquarters thrashed, but his knees were grip- ping the body like a vice.3 The emphasis in this passage falls squarely on K’s physical mastery of the goat. Quite clearly, he is here represented as being a part of the nature- dominating rational world rather than of nature itself. So, while Attwell contends that K is a “different kind of creature from the coloniser,”4 I believe that he, by virtue of cultural location rather than design, is initially a “tamer of the wild” and “Destroyer of the wilderness,”5 and therefore has something in common with Jacobus Coetzee, a fact already implicit in the seemingly innocuous detail that he was once employed as a gardener in Wynberg Park, Cape Town.6 Tellingly, too, K’s killing of the goats al- ludes to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, in which the protagonist’s possession and settlement of the island on which he has been cast away includes the domestication of the goats that he finds there. Among Coetzee’s many other allusions to Defoe’s novel, which in- clude the arrival of Visagie, the grandson of the erstwhile owners of the 3 Life & Times of Michael K (Johannesburg: Ravan, 1983): 73–74. Unless otherwise indicated, further page references are in the main text. 4 Attwell, J.M. Coetzee, 96. 5 Coetzee, Dusklands, 82, 84. 6 While most readers of the novel assert such an opposition between K and colo- nizer, some do detect a change in K’s relation with the earth. Karin van Lierop, for instance, argues for a “reversed process of initiation”: i.e. for an “entry into nature rather than culture,” and for a regression from adulthood to infancy (“A Mythical Inter- pretation of J.M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K,” Commonwealth: Essays & Studies 9.1 [1986]: 47). Derek Wright makes a similar point (“Black Earth, White Myth: Coetzee’s Michael K,” Modern Fiction Studies 38.2 [1992]: 438–39). See also Stefan Helgesson’s contribution to this discussion (Writing in Crisis: Ethics and His- tory in Gordimer, Ndebele and Coetzee [Scottsville: U of KwaZulu–Natal P, 2004]: 208–10). .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Remember to Have a Page Before the Title Page with Title and Name
    “This place being South Africa”: Reading race, sex and power in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace by Kimberly Chou “This place being South Africa”: Reading race, sex and power in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace by Kimberly Chou A thesis presented for the B.A. degree with Honors in The Department of English University of Michigan Spring 2009 © Kimberly Chou 16 March 2009 For fellow readers who have picked up this deeply provocative novel and found themselves at its close with more questions than answers—and for those who have yet to join the conversation. Acknowledgements I am indebted to my advisor, Jennifer Wenzel, for her guidance, patience and forthright criticism. Thank you for challenging me to challenge myself, and for sharing great appreciation for the work of J.M. Coetzee and, most importantly, a love of South Africa. Thank you to Cathy Sanok and Andrea Zemgulys, for unwavering support throughout the thesis-writing process. Thank you to the 2009 English honors thesis cohort for creating a space of encouragement and commiseration. Thank you to the peers and professors at the University of Cape Town who influenced early development of this project. A special thank you to Obs Books in Observatory, Cape Town. Thank you to my family and friends, who have, at this point, likely heard more about the ethics of reading and the politics of place than they had ever wished. Sincere thanks to M.M., F.R., E.M. and J.N. for their honesty and advice. Abstract Whatever discourse J.M. Coetzee intended to arouse with Disgrace, his 1999 novel that addresses changing social dynamics in post-apartheid South Africa, the conversation it has inspired since its publication has been dominated by readers’ suspicions.
    [Show full text]
  • Summertime (David Attwell)
    Trauma, Memory and Narrative in the Contemporary South African Novel Abstracts “ To speak of this you would need the tongue of a god” : On Representing the Trauma of Township Violence (Derek Attridge) It is winter, 1986, on the Cape Flats, and the elderly white lady finds that she cannot produce words equal to the horror of the scene she is witnessing in the shanty­town, where the shacks of the inhabitants are being burned by vigilantes. In J. M. Coetzee’s 1990 novel Age of Iron, the author himself does, of course, describe the scene, reflecting in his choice of language Mrs Curren’s familiarity with classical literature and its accounts of traumatic events. It is an outsider’s description, evincing bafflement as well as shock. For what we are invited to read as an insider’s description of a similar scene occurring ten years earlier, we can turn to The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena, Elsa Joubert’s transcription/rewriting of a black woman’s experiences as narrated to her over a two­year period and first published in Afrikaans in 1978. This paper will compare the narrative strategies of the two authors in attempting to represent the trauma of township violence – marked not just by savage actions but by confusion as to who is friend and who is enemy – and consider the theoretical implications of their choices. Trauma Refracted: J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime (David Attwell) J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime completes a cycle of autobiographical fictions which begins with Boyhood and continues with Youth. In the third and most recent of these works, the protagonist begins publishing his early fiction.
    [Show full text]
  • Age of Iron in the Heart of the Cou1ttry Waiting for the Ba.Rbcm'ans Life & Times of Michael K Foe J.M
    By th.e same author • • Dusklands Age of Iron In the Heart of the Cou1ttry Waiting for the Ba.rbcm'ans Life & Times of Michael K Foe J.M. COETZ,EE Seeker & Warburg London By th.e same author • • Dusklands Age of Iron In the Heart of the Cou1ttry Waiting for the Ba.rbcm'ans Life & Times of Michael K Foe J.M. COETZ,EE Seeker & Warburg London First published in Great Britain in 1990 For by Martin Seeker & Warburg Limited Michelin House, 81 .Fulham Road, London SWJ 6RB V.H.M..C. (1904-1985) z.c. (1912-1988) Copyright© 1990].. M. Coetzee N.G.C. (1966-1989) A CIP catalogue r'ecord for this book is availabl'e from the British Library ISBN 0 43,6 20012 0 Photoset by Rowland Phototypesetting Limited Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay Limited, Bungay,, Suffolk First published in Great Britain in 1990 For by Martin Seeker & Warburg Limited Michelin House, 81 .Fulham Road, London SWJ 6RB V.H.M..C. (1904-1985) z.c. (1912-1988) Copyright© 1990].. M. Coetzee N.G.C. (1966-1989) A CIP catalogue r'ecord for this book is availabl'e from the British Library ISBN 0 43,6 20012 0 Photoset by Rowland Phototypesetting Limited Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay Limited, Bungay,, Suffolk T-here is an alley down the side of the garage, you may remember it, you and your friends would sometimes play ther,e. Now it is a dead place, waste, without use, where windblown leaves pi'fe up and rot.
    [Show full text]
  • "Cruciform Logic:" Mastering the Present in JM Coetzee's Age of Iron
    "Cruciform Logic:" Mastering the Present in J. M. Coetzee's Age of Iron Copyright 2009 Polly Detels DRAFT Prepared for delivery at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 3 -- September 6, 2009 Copyright by the American Political Science Association even in an age of iron, pity is not silenced --J. M. Coetzee discussing his novel Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, "The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers show unto the King. But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. ---Daniel 2: 27-8 Underlying all later, differentiated forms, however, there remains the basic Tale Which expresses Being in flux. Time, then, would not be an empty container into which you can fill any content, but there would be as many times as there are types of differentiated content. Think for instance of Proust's temps perdu and temps retrouv� as times which correspond to the loss and rediscovery of self, the action of rediscovery through a monumental literary work of remembrance being the atonement for loss of time through personal guilt-- very similar to cosmological rituals of restoring order that has been lost through lapse of time.1 [1] ---Eric Voegelin in a letter to Robert Heilman This study began with admiration of long standing for the novels and essays, some scholarly and some for a broader audience, authored by South African John M.
    [Show full text]
  • Narrative Authority in J.M. Coetzee's Age of Iron
    Ian Duncan Narrative authority in Ian Duncan is a graduate student at J.M. Coetzee’s Age of Iron the University of Chicago, working primarily on postcolonial literatures of Africa and the Americas. E-mail: [email protected] Narrative authority in J.M. Coetzee’s Age of Iron This paper explores the complex nature of narrative authority in J.M. Coetzee’s Age of Iron, set in an apartheid South Africa at a moment of extreme political crisis. At first glance, it seems as though Mrs. Curren’s ability to comment on and judge the events of the Emergency is constantly undermined, as Coetzee appears to deliberately place her in a marginalized position that cannot claim any real authority over the events she witnesses. However, reading the novel through the critical lens of Coetzee’s 1996 essay on Erasmus’ In Praise of Folly, it appears that in this novel Coetzee is in fact in search of a position from which one may tell the truth from the outside, without inserting oneself into the rivalrous binary of political oppression and resistance that implies an unavoidable taking of sides (i.e. that of Folly itself). In the end, however, Coetzee is forced to admit that this privileged position of objective truth-telling may not in fact exist, that it is only through the subjective discourse of storytelling – a discourse, however, that is no less authoritative for its being a wholly personal act of witnessing – that one can speak the truth. Key words: “ek- stasis”, authority, alterity, storytelling. Benita Parry, in her contribution to the anthology Writing South Africa, criticizes J.M.
    [Show full text]
  • J. M. Coetzee and the Paradox of Postcolonial Authorship
    J. M. Coetzee and the Paradox of Postcolonial Authorship Jane Poyner J. M. COETZEE AND THE PARADOX OF POSTCOLONIAL AUTHORSHIP For Mehdi and my mother J. M. Coetzee and the Paradox of Postcolonial Authorship JANE POYNER University of Exeter, UK © Jane Poyner 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Jane Poyner has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to EHLGHQWL¿HGDVWKHDXWKRURIWKLVZRUN Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East Suite 420 Union Road 101 Cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7PT VT 05401-4405 England USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Poyner, Jane. J. M. Coetzee and the paradox of postcolonial authorship. 1. Coetzee, J. M., 1940– – Criticism and interpretation. 2. Postcolonialism in literature. 3. Politics and literature – South Africa – History – 20th century. 4. South Africa – In literature. I. Title 823.9’14–dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Poyner, Jane. J. M. Coetzee and the paradox of postcolonial authorship / Jane Poyner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ,6%1 DONSDSHU 1. Coetzee, J. M., 1940 – Criticism and interpretation. 2. Coetzee, J. M., 1940 – Characters – Authors. 3. Authorship in literature. 4. Postcolonialism in literature. 5. South Africa – In
    [Show full text]
  • “A Life Lived in Cages”: Strategies of Containment in JM Coetzee's Age of Iron, Life & Times of Michael K, Elizabeth Costello
    “A Life Lived in Cages”: Strategies of Containment in J.M. Coetzee’s Age of Iron, Life & Times of Michael K, Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons and “The Poetics of Reciprocity” Imke van Heerden 14126230 Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (English Studies) at the University of Stellenbosch Supervisor: Professor Dirk Klopper December 2009 Declaration By submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the owner of the copyright thereof (unless to the extent explicitly otherwise stated) and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. Signature: Date: 26/11/2009 Copyright © 2009 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The support of my supervisor, Professor Dirk Klopper, is gratefully acknowledged. In addition, I would like to thank the National Research Foundation for their financial assistance. iii ABSTRACT In its conversations with four texts by J.M. Coetzee – Age of Iron (1990), Life & Times of Michael K (1983), Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons (2003) as well as the critical essays published in Doubling the Point, “The Poetics of Reciprocity” (1992) – this thesis will demonstrate the manner in which the singularities of each of these texts prompt, expand and challenge the framework that sustains its reading of Coetzee’s fiction. Whereas some critical methodologies seek to eliminate the characteristic indeterminacy of Coetzee’s fiction, imprisoning his novels in a contextual cage, this thesis demonstrates an allegiance to the primacy of the literary text together with a concern with the ethics of reading.
    [Show full text]
  • Original Article
    Available online at http://www.journalijdr.com International Journal of DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH International Journal of Development Research ISSN: 2230-9926 Vol. 4, Issue, 9, pp. 1961-1965, September, 2014 Full Length Research Article EXPLORING PATTERNS OF VIOLENCE IN J. M. COETZEE’S FICTION *Dr. Saman Saif and Dr. Nadia Anjum Department of English Fatima Jinnah University for Women, Rawalpindi, Pakistan Department of English, Kinnaird College For Women, Lahore, Pakistan ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article History: The aim of this research paper is to explore patterns of violence in J. M. Coetzee’s Received 05th June, 2014 fiction particularly with reference to his four major novels Summertime (2009), The Slow Man Received in revised form (2005), Age of Iron (1990) and Foe (1986). As a representative of the post-colonial Afro 12th July, 2014 American psyche, his fiction documents the multiple facets to socio-political, ethno-racial, Accepted 17th August, 2014 and linguistic violence. The objective is to discern the textual representation of cruelties th Published online 30 September, 2014 and their response; also to critique the role of the perpetrators of violence. The emerging patterns will be analyzed against theories of discourse, culture and psycho analysis. Research Key words: findings endorse the fact that violence gets perpetrated through active and passive agents who South Africa, not merely depict the historical reality but also the experiential evolution of individuals, Consciousness, communities and institutions. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, educated in the U.S as a Not-soevident, computer scientist and linguist, J.M Coetzee brings his searing insight and masterful control of Summertime.
    [Show full text]
  • Confrontation and Identity in the Fiction of J.M. Coetzee
    Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses 1-1-1999 Confrontation and identity in the fiction of J.M. Coetzee Dawn Grieve Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses Part of the Creative Writing Commons Recommended Citation Grieve, D. (1999). Confrontation and identity in the fiction of J.M. Coetzee. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/ 1246 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1246 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Courts have the power to impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions for infringement of copyright, infringement of moral rights and other offences under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form.
    [Show full text]
  • © in This Web Service Cambridge University Press
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19928-5 - The Cambridge History of South African Literature Edited By David Attwell and Derek Attridge Index More information Index Abrahams, Lionel, 371, 478, 537, 592, 829 1948–94 literatures, 609–20: language Abrahams, Peter boards, 611; publishers, 610–11; Bantu World, 334 readership, 610; themes, 611–18 Dark City, 334 debate, 327, 421–2 Drum magazine and, 399 English and, 588 exile, 381, 410 literary criticism, 1910–48, 825–6 historical novels, 297, 305 modernity and, 327 influence, 334–5, 511 New African Movement, 325–37 language, 753 official languages, 2, 607 Mine Boy, 305, 334, 437, 482 post-1948 writing, 607–28 ‘Negro Youth’, 510–11 post-apartheid writing, 619–27: key figures, New African Movement, 333 625–7; response to liberation, 620–5; publishers, 707, 708, 710 translations, 625 racial classification, 432 publishing, 804–7: mission presses, 204–23, Return to Egoli, 334 293, 804 ‘Self ’, 511–12 transcription, 182, 204, 205–8, 327–8 Song of the City, 305 translations into, 293–4, 625, 746–7: Tell Freedom, 334, 410 autobiographies, 717 Wild Conquest, 242, 300, 334, 397 African Literature Association, 420–1 Abrahams, Yvette, 152 African National Congress (ANC) Achebe, Chinua, 305, 412, 415, 618, 801 1994 triumph, 384, 619 Act of Union (1910), 184, 218, 222, 223, 287, 291, apartheid period, 289 361, 476 ban, 552 Adamastor Christianity and, 570 African figure, 120–1 Cultural Desk, 645, 781 Afrikaans theme, 132–4 Drum magazine and, 395 Camoes,˜ 114, 117, 119 fictional support, 383 Campbell, 121, 123, 124, 344 Inkatha conflict, 647, 731 demise, 131–2 non-violent resistance, 382 early versions, 121–4 origins, 184, 222, 304, 812 post-Campbell versions, 126–31 periodicals, 824 Rabelais, 120 post-Sharpeville, 382 translations, 120–1 prison and, 554 Adams, H.
    [Show full text]
  • An Investigation of Masculinity in JM Coetzee's Disgrace
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by South East Academic Libraries System (SEALS) An Investigation of Masculinity in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999) Marina Susan Kok Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Magister Artium in the Faculty of Arts at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Supervisor: Prof. H. E. Janse van Vuuren Co-Supervisors: Dr M. E. West and Dr N. J. Smith January 2008 DECLARATION I declare that “An Investigation of Masculinity in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999) ”, is my own work, that it has not been submitted for any degree or examination in any other university, and that all the sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by complete references. Marina Susan Kok January 2008 ___________________________ 1 1. INTRODUCTION: DISGRACE (1999) AND MASCULINITY STUDIES 1.1 An Overview of Disgrace (1999) 6 1.1.1 Overview of Plot 9 1.1.2 Style, Language, Setting and Other Literary Devices 11 1.1.3 Context of Writing in Post-Apartheid South Africa 12 1.1.4 Characterization 13 1.2 Reception study of Disgrace (1999) 14 1.3 Disgrace (1999) and Masculinity 15 1.4 Masculinity Studies - An Overview 19 1.4.1 Defining Masculinity 21 1.4.2 Defining Masculinity in Crisis 26 2. “WITHOUT WARNING HIS POWERS FLED”: POWER AND THE CRISIS DEBATE 29 2.1 Hegemonic Masculine Ideology versus Masculinity 30 2.2 Expected Power versus Experienced Power 35 2.3 Women Usurping Power: Cause for Crisis 37 2.4 Discourse and Gender Identity 41 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Ariel 36(1-2)
    The Limits of Sympathy: J. M. Coetzee’s Evolving Ethics of Engagement Geoffrey Baker “It helps to try to imagine ourselves into her argument” (Linda Kintz Between Jesus 29) I would like to open this article with two quotations: “Despite Thomas Nagel, who is probably a good man, despite Thomas Aquinas and René Descartes, with whom I have more diffi culty in sympathizing, there is no limit to the extent to which we can think ourselves into the being of another. There are no bounds to the sympathetic imagination” (Coetzee, The Lives of Animals 35); “We are invited to understand and sympathize. But there is a limit to sympathy. For though he lives among us, he is not one of us. He is exactly what he calls himself: a thing, that is, a mon- ster” (Coetzee, Disgrace 33–34). These brief passages from two of J.M. Coetzee’s texts, when placed in tandem and out of the context of the narrative developments in which they appear, form a neat little disagree- ment, a paradox to which this paper’s attention will fi nally tend in its investigation of what one might term—whether or not one chooses to see it as superfi cial or essential—the affective aim of Coetzee’s fi ctions. Both quotes are taken from lectures delivered by fi ctional characters, and since both of these characters are academics and writers, the con- trast at hand between these dueling viewpoints and how they come to be represented could reverberate forcefully within a larger discussion over the more general public role of the writer or intellectual, as well as of literature and the criticism of literature.
    [Show full text]