TRADITIONAL ALLEGORY AND ITS POSTMODERNIST USE IN THE NOVELS OF J.M. COETZEE by Laraine Christiana O'Connel l Thesis accepted i n fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor Litterarum in the Faculty of Arts (Dept. of Engli sh) of the Potchefstroomse Uni versiteit vir Christelike Hoer Onderwys. PROMOTER: A.L. COMBRINK D.LITT. POTCHEFSTROOM 1988 ACKNOWLEDGfMENTS I wish to extend a special word of thanks to * Prof . W.J . de V. Prinsloo who encouraged me to undertake this study; * Prof. A.L. Combrink f or her knowledgeable guidance, keen i nterest and for her enthusi asm which has been a contin­ uous source of inspi ration; * the staff of the Ferdinand Postma Library who went to im­ mense trouble to procure any material that I required, and posted l iteral l y hundreds of books and photocopies to me; * t he Human Sciences Research Council for their financial ass istance r endered towards the cost of thi s research, which is hereby acknowledged; * SENSAL , for access to reviews and other materials i n their possession; * Hennie , whose loving forebearance and consideration cr eat­ ed t he stable emotional envi ronment without which it would not have been possible to complete this study. Opini ons expr essed or conclusions arri ved at are t hos e of the author and are not to be r egarded as those of t he Human Sciences Research Council . INDEX PAGE INTRODUCTION 2 ALLEGORY: A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF ITS DEVELOPMENT UP TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY . 7 2 . 1 INTRODUCTION . • . 7 2 . 2 THE ORIGINS OF ALLEGORY . 9 2.3 MEDIEVAL ALLEGORY . 15 2.3.1 THE NATURE OF MEDIEVAL ALLEGORY . 15 2. 3 . 2 BIBLICAL ALLEGORY . • • . • . • . 19 2. 3 . 3 THE MORALITY PLAY . 24 2. 3.4 MEDIEVAL LOVE POETRY .. .. .. .... .. 25 2.4 RENAISSANCE ALLEGORY 27 2.5 EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH- CENTURY ALLEGORY ... 33 2.6 SOME CONTENTIONS SURROUNDING ALLEGORY . ... ... 41 2 . 6. 1 ALLEGORY AS GENRE ... .. ..... .. .. 41 2.6.2 METAPHOR OR METONYMY? 46 2.6. 3 SYMBOLS AND SYMBOLI~4 IN ALLEGORY .. .. 48 2.6.4 ALLEGORY AND ~ITTH . .. ... ...... .. .. 50 2.6.5 PERSONIFICATION AND AGENTS IN ALLEGORY 51 3 MODERN ALLEGORY . • . • . 55 3.1 INTRODUCTION . • . • . 55 3.2 THE NATURE OF MODERN ALLEGORY . .............. 58 3. 3 COMPARING EARLIER AND MODERN ALLEGORY .. ...... 68 3.4 SYMBOLS AND MODERN ALLEGORY .. .. .• .. ........ 74 3-5 MYTH AND MODERN ALLEGORY . .. ... .. .. .. .. ...... 76 3 . 6 FABULATION . • . 77 3.7 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE READER . ... .. ... •.. 79 3.8 LITieRATURE ENGAGeE ... ...... .•.. .. ... 81 3.9 A WORKING DEFINITION OF MODERN ALLEGORY 83 4 SOHE MODERN ALLEGORISTS . 89 4.1 WILLIAM B. YEATS (1865- 1939) . ..... ...... 89 4.2 JOSEPH CONRAD (1857- 1924) . 91 4.3 FRANZ KAFKA (1883-1924) 92 4.4 HERMANN HESSE (1877-1962) 102 4. 5 DINO BUZZATI (1906-1972) 104 4 .6 GEORGE ORWELL (1903-1950) 108 4. 7 WI LLIAM GOLDING (1911- 109 4. 8 LAWRENCE DURRELL (1912- 115 4. 9 IRIS MURDOCH (1916- 118 4. 10 JORGE LUIS BORGES (1899-1986) .... ... .. .... .. 124 4. 11 GABRIEL OKARA (1921- ) . • . • . 128 4.12 JOAO UBALDO RIBEIRO (1941- ..... .... .. .. 133 4. 13 JOSe DONOSO (1924- ) . 135 4. 14 CONCLUSION ..• . ' . ............. .. .. .. .. 147 5 ALLEGORICAL TENDENCIES IN SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE . 149 5. 1 I NTRODUCTION . 149 5.2 JAN LION-CACHET (1838-1912) . .. ..... 152 5. 3 N.P. VANWYK LOU\11 (1906-1970) ..... • . ....... 153 5. 4 ETIENNE LEROUX (1922- ) . 155 5. 5 BARTHO SMIT (1 924-1986) . 168 5. 6 ANDRe P. BRINK (1935- 169 5. 7 BERTA SMIT ( 1926- 171 5. 8 ELSA JOUBERT (1922- 172 5. 9 ANNA M. LOffiv (1913- 173 5.10 SHEILA FUGARD (? 176 5. 11 KAREL SCHOEMAN (1939- 177 5. 12 NADINE GORDIMER ( 1923- 178 5. 13 1\liLMA STOCKENSTROM (1933- 179 5.14 CONCLUSION . 180 6 ALLEGORY AS AN ASPECT OF THE NOVELS OF J .M. COETZEE . 181 6 . 1 INTRODUCTION . 181 6 . 2 DUSKLANDS . 184 6. 3 I N THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY .. .. .. 209 6. 4 WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS . .. 224 6.5 LI FE AND TIMES OF MICHAEL. K .. .... ... .. ...... 245 6.6 FOE . .. .. .. 259 7 CONCLUSION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 27 5 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 299 ADDENDUM I : ABS1RACT i ADDENDUM II : UIITREKSEL xi 4 within t his allegurical f r amework that Coetzee's novel s should be read, and wi thin which they at tain their most complex meaning. Although many r eviewers take cognizance of this fact , no extensive study of this particular aspect has to date been published. Coetzee's novels qualify as alleguries because of the mult i-level nature of the narratives. As Beryl Roberts says, "Endowed with a gift for sparse, spare story- t elling, in which there is not a wasted wor d or image, he yet manages to tell a story of allegoric­ al significance, which haunts the mind and touches raw nerves" ( 1983). Tony Morphet points out that in Coetzee ' s very first novel, Dusk­ lands, "real ism as the faithful history of the interpenetration of man and situati on seen from within and without, and judged from a single central poi nt of view" is abandoned (58), and Coet zee strikes out on a course as yet uncommon in South African l itera­ ture, but along a t r ail blazed by writers such as Barth, Pynchon and Borges. In Waiting for the Barbarians Michael Lee identifies a movement i n South African f i ction "away from direct and realist­ ic representati on of a deadlocked South Af r i can reali ty •. through imaginative project i on into the realm of allegory, myth and symbol" (1981:88) . Williams refers to t he allegorical level of In the heart of t he country, i n which Magda frees herself from her past, represented by her father , and then tri es to relate to the black labourers. "The allegury would suggest that it is too late for peaceful negu­ tiations between black and white and the confrontation between them wi ll be vi olent" (1985 : 53). Zamora cal ls Waiting for the Barbarians Coetzee ' s most al legorical work, pres enting "a portrai·t of the rel ati ons between t he posses­ sor of po>ie r and the possessed ,,/hich is both a subtle and a point­ ed i ndi ct ment of those relations" (5) . 5 Life and times of Michael K is identified as an al legory by Allan Huw Smith, who calls Michael K "a bent-wire coat hanger of a char­ acter on which to hang this allegory" ( 1983:28), although Zamora feels that this novel i s less an allegorical fable of power than Coetzee 's other novels. She does, however, connect this novel to the tradition of allegorical dissent which she has traced in much modern literature (11). Nadine Gordimer (1984:3) is of the opinion that Coetzee chose al­ legory as his mode, because it was the only way he could handle the horror he had to convey, and she identifies various allegoric­ al symbols in Michael K. Helene Miiller confirms that in Michael K "Coetzee has written an allegory which may be interpreted on two distinct levels: the universal and the more specifically South African" (1985 :41) . D.J. Enright appears able to justify Life and times of Michael K only on the grounds of its being an allegory, albeit a thin one (1983 : 1037), while Patricia Blake reads it as an allegory of terminal civil war, and the end of the world (1984:56). Coetzee's most recent novel, Foe, also falls i nto this category of allegory. Douglas Reid Skinner remarks that " more allegoric- ally than explicitly, it revealingly examines the complex and highly politicised empirical and textual domains of South Africa, achieving by such inspired distancing an emphatic clarity of vis­ ion" ( 1986b:83). Alexander refers to the fact that the novel is about "the vagaries of communication and above all about the writ­ er's craft" (1987:38), while on the surface confronting the read­ er with the rudiments of the racist, colonialist situation out of which many of the problems of our present world have grown, thus unmistakably an allegory. In order to test my hypothesis that the allegorical aspect of Coetzee's novels is of crucial importance to the interpretation of his work, it will be necessary first to trace the development of allegory into modern times . This summary lays no claim to being full y comprehensive, but will hopef ully be of sufficient scope to 6 arrive by this method at a working definition of allegory, within the f ramework of which it wil l be possi ble to evaluate Coetzee's novels as all egori es. 7 2 ALLEOORY: A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF TIS DEVELOPMENT UP TO 1HE NINETEEN'lH CENTURY 2. 1 IN'IRODUCTION Despite the developments and adaptations t hat allegory has under­ gone through the ages to allow for changing demands and purposes and shifting emphases, it has remained sufficiently recognisable s o that even very early definitions are still at least partially valid. Allegory can still be identified as "speaking in other tenns" (Gillie,1972:382) , while Whitman ( 1987: 1) points out that from t he begi nning allegory has been known as an oblique way of writing. A very early theorist, Quintilian, says that allegory presents one thing in words and another i n meani ng (Levine,1981: 23). These early definitions imply a critical awar eness of alle­ gory ever since the earliest literary and artistic employment of the form (Bloom, 1951:163) . A more modern t heorist, Northrop Frye, defines allegory as fol­ lows: "We have allegory when the events of a narrative obviousl y and conti nuousl y refer to another simultaneous struct ure of events or ideas, or natural phenomena" (Preminger,1965 : 12) .