«Positioning is, above all, a matter of representation»J. M. Coetzee and the Transformative Power of Transgression

  1. Svetlana Stefanova Radoulska
Journal:
Cultura, lenguaje y representación = Culture, language and representation: revista de estudios culturales de la Universitat Jaume I = cultural studies journal of Universitat Jaume I

ISSN: 1697-7750

Year of publication: 2015

Issue: 14

Pages: 181-200

Type: Article

DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Cultura, lenguaje y representación = Culture, language and representation: revista de estudios culturales de la Universitat Jaume I = cultural studies journal of Universitat Jaume I

Abstract

Cultural identity is constructed through and within representation, hence the great interest of postcolonial intellectuals in its creative and ideological potential. In the present essay, I read J. M. Coetzee’s novels as innovative sites of transgression that open up an alternative space of interpretation of the literary devices he employs as a source for understanding and illustrating his moral and ethical position. Although he avoids explicit positioning in a binary political thinking and does not publicly establish a relationship between his ideological views and his fiction, the narrative strategies he adopts to represent experiences of suffering and pain speak for themselves. His fiction reveals the author’s special interest in the process of creation and interpretation of meaning and in the power of writing. Self-reflexiveness as one of the main features of his texts draws the reader’s attention to the linguistic status of representation and suggests that our only access to past events, including historical events, is through discourse.

Bibliographic References

  • Abbott, H. P. (2011): «Time, Narrative, Life, Death, and Text-Type Distinctions: The Example of Coetzee’s Diary of a Bad Year», Narrative, 19 (2) (May): 187-200.
  • Ashcroft, B. (2001): Post-Colonial Transformation, London and New York, Routledge.
  • Attridge, D. (1993): «Coetzee in Context [Review of A Story of South Africa, Gallagher]», Novel: A Forum on Fiction, 26 (3) (Spring): 321-323.
  • Attridge, D. (2004 a): J. M. Coetzee & the Ethics of Reading. Literature in the Event, Chicago & London, The University of Chicago Press.
  • Attridge, D. (2004 b): «Ethical Modernism: Servants as Others in J. M. Coetzee’s Early Fiction», Poetics Today, 25 (4): 653-671.
  • Attwell, D. (1993): J. M. Coetzee. South Africa and the Politics of Writing, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press.
  • Attwell, D. (2008): «Coetzee’s Estrangements», Novel: A Forum on Fiction, (Spring/Summer): 229-243.
  • Bhabha, Homi K. (2006): The Location of Culture, London and New York, Routledge.
  • Coetzee, J. M. (1977): «Achterberg’s ‘Ballade van de gasfitter’: The Mystery of I and You», pmla, 92 (2) (March): 285-296.
  • Coetzee, J. M. (1983 [1974]): Dusklands, London, Penguin Books.
  • Coetzee, J. M. (1988): «The Novel Today», Upstream, 6 (1): 2-5.
  • Coetzee, J. M. (1990): Age of Iron, London, Secker & Warburg.
  • Coetzee, J. M. (1994): The Master of Petersburg, London, Secker & Warburg.
  • Coetzee, J. M. (1999 [1977]): In the Heart of the Country, London, Vintage Books.
  • Coetzee, J. M. (2004 a [1980]): Waiting for the Barbarians, London, Vintage Books.
  • Coetzee, J. M. (2004 b [2003]): Elizabeth Costello, London, Vintage.
  • Donovan, J. (2004): «’Miracles of Creation’: Animals in J. M. Coetzee’s Work», Michigan Review, 43 (1) (Winter): 78-93.
  • Dovey, T. (1987): «Coetzee and His Critics: The Case of Dusklands», English in Africa, 14 (2): 15-30.
  • Eaglestone, R. (eds.) (2009): J. M. Coetzee in Context and Theory, New York, Continuum. 60-70.
  • Graham, L. (2002): «“Yes, I am giving him up”: sacrificial responsibility and likeness with dogs in J. M. Coetzee’s recent fiction», Scrutiny2. Issues in English Studies in Southern Africa, 7 (1): 4-16.
  • Grosz, E. (1995): Time, Space, and Perversion. Essays on the Politics of Bodies, New York and London, Routledge.
  • Hayes, P. (2010): J. M. Coetzee and the Novel. Writing and Politics After Beckett, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  • Head, D. (2004): J. M. Coetzee, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  • Hutcheon, L. (1992): A Poetics of Postmodernism. History, Theory, Fiction, New York and London, Routledge.
  • Hutcheon, L. (2002): The Politics of Postmodernism, London and New York, Routledge.
  • Kossew, S. (1996): Pen and Power. A Post-Colonial Reading of J. M. Coetzee and André Brink, Amsterdam, Rodopi.
  • Kossew, S. (2009): «Border Crossings: Self and Text» in Boehmer, E.; K. Iddiols; R. Eaglestone (2009): J. M. Goetzee in Context and Theory, London, Continuum. 60-70.
  • Macaskill, B. (1994): «Charting J. M. Coetzee’s Middle Voice», Contemporary Literature, 35 (3): 441-75.
  • May, B. (2001): «J. M. Coetzee and the Question of the Body», Modern Fiction Studies, 47 (2): 391-420.
  • Smuts, E. (2009): «Reading through the Gates: Structure, Desire and Subjectivity in J. M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello», English in Africa, 36 (2) (October): 63-77.
  • Wood, J. (2003): «A Frog’s Life», London Review of Books, 25 (20), 23 October, 15-16. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n20/james-wood/a-frogs-life [Accessed 27 February 2015].
Data source: Dialnet