The Body and Allegory in Coetzee's Early Fiction
The body and allegory in Coetzee’s early fiction
Introduction
One can definitely state that the body is one of Coetzee’s big themes, for it is omnipresent in his work. In his early fiction the body presents itself in many various ways in both Dusklands, In the Heart of the Country, Waiting for the Barbarians and Life & Times of Michael K.
I will discuss these bodies and place them in a broader context, since Coetzee’s early fiction is highly allegorical. I will also show how different themes are approached through the author’s treatment of the body and how the body is used to make innovative statements about the human condition.
The body according to Coetzee
Coetzee says that « Whatever else, the body is not ‘that which is not’ » 1.
This characterization means that it might be hard to distinguish what the body is, but there is no question whether the body is. The body in Coetzee is a force in its own right. For Coetzee the body is not in itself so insignificant that it may be used merely as a means of characterizing something else. Especially in Waiting for the Barbarians, Coetzee attacks the long Western tradition of transcendent vision and askesis, a tradition that deals with the body masterfully : either as an obstacle or as a means. But according to Coetzee the body is an independent force that claims its own authority. Always, the body is just there, not meaning or expressing anything else. Bodies signify nothing but themselves.
The characteristic all the Coetzeean bodies have in common is their strangeness ; there is always something unusual about them. It seems as if they are unable to assimilate with the text and therefore draw the attention of the reader. The Coetzeean subject is always a site of conflict between the narrative subject and the implied narrator. The narrative subject corresponds to the body, but the implied narrator to the mind. Through this dissonance the body becomes ‘strange’, even ‘the stranger’ or ‘the other’
Introduction
One can definitely state that the body is one of Coetzee’s big themes, for it is omnipresent in his work. In his early fiction the body presents itself in many various ways in both Dusklands, In the Heart of the Country, Waiting for the Barbarians and Life & Times of Michael K.
I will discuss these bodies and place them in a broader context, since Coetzee’s early fiction is highly allegorical. I will also show how different themes are approached through the author’s treatment of the body and how the body is used to make innovative statements about the human condition.
The body according to Coetzee
Coetzee says that « Whatever else, the body is not ‘that which is not’ » 1.
This characterization means that it might be hard to distinguish what the body is, but there is no question whether the body is. The body in Coetzee is a force in its own right. For Coetzee the body is not in itself so insignificant that it may be used merely as a means of characterizing something else. Especially in Waiting for the Barbarians, Coetzee attacks the long Western tradition of transcendent vision and askesis, a tradition that deals with the body masterfully : either as an obstacle or as a means. But according to Coetzee the body is an independent force that claims its own authority. Always, the body is just there, not meaning or expressing anything else. Bodies signify nothing but themselves.
The characteristic all the Coetzeean bodies have in common is their strangeness ; there is always something unusual about them. It seems as if they are unable to assimilate with the text and therefore draw the attention of the reader. The Coetzeean subject is always a site of conflict between the narrative subject and the implied narrator. The narrative subject corresponds to the body, but the implied narrator to the mind. Through this dissonance the body becomes ‘strange’, even ‘the stranger’ or ‘the other’
Bibliography: Primary literature Coetzee, J.M. Dusklands. London : Vintage, 1998. Coetzee, J.M. In the Heart of the Country. London : Vintage Books, 1999. Coetzee, J.M. Waiting for the Barbarians. London : Vintage Books, 2000. Coetzee, J.M. Life & Times of Michael K. London : Vintage Books, 1998. Secondary literature Attwell, David, ed. « Autobiography and Confession : Interview ». Doubling the Point : Essays and Interviews. Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1992. Brooks, Peter. Body Work : Objects of Desire in Modern Narrative. Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1993. Hughes, Conrad Lawrence Marquard, The treatment of the body in the fiction of JM Coetzee, http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/5764/The%20Treatment%20of%20the%20Body%20in%20the%20Fiction%20of%20JM%20Coetzee%202008.pdf?sequence=2 May, Brian. « J.M. Coetzee and the Question of the Body. » Modern Fiction Studies 47.2, 2001. p 391 - 420.