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Autre-Biography, Failure and the Body in JM Coetzee And

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Autre-Biography, Failure and the Body in JM Coetzee And Strange Intimacies: Autre-biography, Failure and the Body in J.M. Coetzee and Paul Auster Amy Louise Parish A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of the Arts and Media Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences June 2017 Surname or Family name Purish First name Amy O'hcr n.:irne's Lo.i1sc Abbreviation for degree as given In the University calendar: School: Arts and Media Faculty· Artsand Social Sciences Title: Strange �ntlmacies: Autre-blography, Failure and the Body in J.M. Coetzee and Paul Auster Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE) Following the recent publication of J.M. Coetzee's and Paul Auster's book of epistolary exchanges, Horo and Now, this t�esis makes the case for considering Coetzee's and Auster's writing in a dialogue with one another. More specifically, this thesis considers the relationship between Coetzee's and Auster's contributions to the genre of life writing, and through comparing their works which have variously been described as memoir, autobiography and fictionalised autobiography, it argues that both Coetzee and Auster write au/re-biography, a term that Coetzee coined, but a style to which Auster has also made contributions. Importantly, this thesis rejects the notion that the use of autre-biography, which may eschew the use of first-person narration and insert fictionalising and distancing strategies into its self-representation, is a style that precludes the work from inclusion in the genre of life writing, and denies the text any sense of truth value or intimacy. Rather, this thesis suggests that autre-blography is a style of life writing that recognises the inevitable "ontological gap" between the writing and experiencing self in the form of the text itself, as well as other limits and challenges which scholars have identified with autobiography. These include the problems of narcissism and triumphalism in the genre, and the tendency of Western autobiography to marginalise and exclude the body in its representation of self. It also argues that both Coetzee and Auster subvertmany of the conventions often associated with autobiography in order to inscribe vulnerability in their works, which may, ironically, facilitate confessional moments in their autre-biography. Drawing on life writing scholarship, this thesis argues that autre-biography engages with the dialogic potential of life writing and reflects a shift away from product to process in the representation of selves, and reflects the increasing potential of life writing to comment on the processes and limits of self-representation within the representation itself. In doing so, it suggests that Coetzee and Auster recognise the tensions of intimacy and alienation, the "self-defeating dialectic" of a desire to represent the truth of self within their autre-biography, creating unexpected moments of candour and immediacy in their work. Declaration relating to disposition of project thesis/dissertation I hereby grant to the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in partin the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here afterknown, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all property rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articlesor books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. ofilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in DissertationAbstracts International (this is applicable to doctoral .... .30./.9..:3 Oat...{ /.. .21:)1...7 The University recognis that there may be exceptional circumstances r uirin restrictions on copying or conditions on use. Requests for restriction for a period o up to 2 years must be made in writing. Request longer period of restriction may be considered in exceptional circumstances and re uire the a roval of the Dean of Graduate Research. FOR OFFICE USE ONLY Date of completion of requirements for Award: ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed …………………………………………….......... Date …………………………………………….............. 2 Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank the academic and professional staff at the School of Arts and Media at UNSW Sydney who have encouraged me throughout my doctoral studies. Thank you to Bill Ashcroft and Julian Murphet for the detailed and constructive feedback they provided each year on my annual review panel. I would especially like to thank Chris Danta, who was a kind and patient supervisor from the very early stages of this project. I could not have completed this thesis without his guidance and generosity. To my friend, Helen Rydstrand, for helping to proofread this thesis and writing little encouraging notes to boost my morale along the way. To my family and friends, who supported me through some challenging times, learnt to stop asking me about my thesis and excused me as I disappeared into my study or to UNSW for too many a sunny weekend over the last few years. Finally, to my husband Ian Zucker, who was endlessly encouraging and generous, especially in the final stages of my candidature. I would not be have got this far in the project without his unconditional support. 3 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................. 5 Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee’s Here and Now ..................................................................... 5 Reality, Fiction and “Fictional Truths” in Coetzee and Auster ........................................... 10 Auster, Coetzee and the Limits of Autobiography ............................................................... 22 Late Style ........................................................................................................................... 34 Autre-biography ................................................................................................................. 38 Chapter 1: Breaking the ‘pact’? Questions of truth, process and intimacy in Coetzee and Auster’s autre-biography ......................................................................................45 The “Autobiographical Pact” ............................................................................................. 47 Unnatural narration and autobiographical “tricks” ............................................................. 49 Coetzee’s and Auster’s unusual autobiographies ................................................................ 52 Autobiography and the Dialogic ......................................................................................... 57 Autres and autre-biography ................................................................................................ 65 Coetzee’s autre-biography .................................................................................................. 73 The autres of Paul Auster ................................................................................................. 102 Concluding thoughts ........................................................................................................ 121 Chapter 2: “A willingness to fail and fail again”: Vulnerability, failure and autre- biography in Coetzee and Auster .............................................................................. 123 Autobiography as ‘Advertisement’ .................................................................................... 124 Why failure? ..................................................................................................................... 131 The rhetoric of failure in autobiography ........................................................................... 135 Coetzee’s Youth and Summertime .................................................................................... 144 Auster’s Hand to Mouth and Report from the Interior ...................................................... 171 Concluding thoughts ........................................................................................................ 188 Chapter 3: Embodiment and autre-biography: Coetzee’s Summertime and Auster’s Winter Journal ........................................................................................................... 189 Life Writing and the Body ................................................................................................ 191 Coetzee and the Body ....................................................................................................... 201 Auster and the Body ......................................................................................................... 206 The body, the self and language ....................................................................................... 208 The body, dependence and decrepitude
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