Embedded subjectivity in the work of J.M. Coetzee

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is the result of an immersion in the work of J.M. Coetzee. I have takenvarious of Coetzee's novels, namely Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons, Disgrace, TheMaster of Petersburg, Foe, Life & Times of Michael K and Slow Man, and constructedreadings of these novels from the inside out. The overarching concern of thedissertation is the notion of subjectivity and Coetzee's methods of representingsubjectivity. It is my contestation that the experience of authentic subjectiveawareness arises from the process of reading itself. It is not a state of being that isdescribed by the text, but rather a layered constellation of substitutive exchanges thatemerges from the process of textual relation. The notion of embeddedness serves as adescription of the way in which the text materializes this experience of subjectivity.The structure of exploration in each chapter has taken as its paradigm a conceptualconcern arising from the text itself. In the first chapter (Elizabeth Costello) theconcern is with structure itself. The character of Elizabeth struggles against thelimitation inherent in the process of representation; this struggle is read as anindication of authentic subjective experience in the face of reduction to a system ofcodes. The second chapter (Disgrace) attempts to formulate the dynamic ofsubjective awareness in romantic terms. I construct a reading of Lurie's predicamentin terms that arise from his conceptual environment, in order to indicate the primacyof textual materiality as the locus of subjective awareness. The notion of the classicinforms the third chapter (The Master of Petersburg). I use an essay by Coetzee todelineate a conception of the classic, which is then applied as a theoretical frameworkfor an exploration of Dostoevsky's pursuit of his stepson. The fourth and last chapter(Foe, Life & Times of Michael K and Slow Man) focuses on Coetzee's use of the bodyas a figure for embedded subjectivity. It emerges that the body as a trope ofembeddedness forms an important aspect of Coetzee's work throughout his career.As such it is a very suitable figure for describing the dynamics of embeddedness as amode of representation that aligns itself with the textual materiality of subjectivebeing.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University