On Feminism and Identity in J.M. Coetzee Literature: A Critical Analysis from Post-Colonial Perspective
Keywords:
feminism, apartheid, identity, Coetzee's novels
Abstract
As a Noble Laureate, John Maxwell Coetzee has been one of the most important icons of post-colonial writers in feminism literature. This study reveals significant role of women characters in Coetzee’s fiction focusing on how the concept of feminism is used through employing women characters for mirroring both gender and racial schism. In Coetzee’s fiction, female characters are employed as a typical solution to several issues he wants to reveal according to his own identity and social persona. This study critically scrutinizes Coetzee’s selected novels, namely In the Heart of the Country, Waiting for the Barbarians, Foe, Age of Iron, and Disgrace. Almost all Coetzee’s works mainly focus on the socio-political status of women in Africa with regard to sexism, femininity and masculinity ideologies. In this study, the post-colonial feminism theory has been applied using discursive strategy based on anthropological and sociological analyses to reflect the socio-political scenarios of both Apartheid and Post-apartheid Africa. As its findings put to light the post-colonial black women’s treatment by the colonisers and the forms of resisting their hegemony, it is expected that this study will significantly contribute to the researchers whose concern is on feminism as a significant phenomenon in the post-colonial literature.
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References
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Durrant, S. (2012). Postcolonial narrative and the work of mourning: JM Coetzee, Wilson Harris, and Toni Morrison: SUNY Press.
Elmgren, C. (2019). JM Coetzee's Poetics of the Child. Department of English, Stockholm University,
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Gardiner, A. (1987). JM Coetzee's Dusklands: colonial encounters of the Robinsonian Kind. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 27(2), 174-184.
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Feminism and Coetzee’s Dialogues with Joyce. Australian Literary Studies, 33(1).
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Neimneh, S. S., Obeidat, M. M., & Al-Mwajeh, M. O. (2019). Subversive Bodies: JM Coetzee's In the Heart of the Country and Psychoanalytic Feminism. Ars Artium, 20.
Parry, B. (1996). Speech and Silence in the Fictions of JM Coetzee. In Critical perspectives on JM Coetzee (pp. 37-65): Springer.
Poyner, J. (2016). JM Coetzee and the paradox of postcolonial authorship: Routledge.
Price, J. (2008). Coetzee's Foe: Susan Barton's (Un) Reliable Narration and Her Revelation through Misreading.
Saunders, R. (2001). The agony and the allegory: The concept of the foreign, the language of apartheid, and the fiction of JM Coetzee. Cultural Critique(47), 215-264.
Stone, E. K. (2003). Good housekeeping: Single women and global feminism in JM Coetzee’s In the Heart of the Country. ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, 34(2-3).
Tiffin, C., & Lawson, A. (1994). De-scribing empire: post-colonialism and textuality: Taylor & Francis.
Wade, M. (2016). White on black in South Africa: a study of English-language inscriptions of skin colour: Springer.
Watson, S. (1996). Colonialism and the Novels of JM Coetzee. In Critical perspectives on JM Coetzee (pp. 13-36): Springer.
Wisker, G. (2006). Key concepts in postcolonial literature: Palgrave Macmillan.
Amadi, D. C. (2018). How do we Locate JM Coetzee in his Novels? A Closer Look at the Man and His Art in Two of His Novels. European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies.
Ashcroft, B. (2018). Magda Meets Theodora: Language and Interiority in The Aunt’s Story and In The Heart of the Country. Australian Literary Studies, 33(1).
Attwell, D. (1993). JM Coetzee: South Africa and the politics of writing: Univ of California Press.
Beinart, W. (2001). Twentieth-Century South Africa: OUP Oxford.
Belgacem, O. (2018). The Body, Desire and Storytelling in Novels by JM Coetzee: Routledge.
Bhabha, H. (1990). DissemiNation: time, narrative, and the margins of the modern nation.
Canepari-Labib, M. (2005). Old myths-modern empires: power, language, and identity in JM Coetzee's work (Vol. 4): Peter Lang.
Cantor, P. A. (1994). Happy Days in the Veld, Beckett and Coetzee' In The Heart of the Country'. South Atlantic Quarterly, 93(1), 83-110.
Coetzee, J. M. (1987). Foe: Middlesex, Penguin.
Coetzee, J. M. (2000). Disgrace: Penguin.
Coetzee, J. M. (2004). In the Heart of the Country: Random House.
Coetzee, J. M. (2015). Age of iron: Penguin UK.
Coetzee, J. M. (2015). Waiting for the Barbarians: Random House.
Coetzee, J. M. (2017). In the Heart of the Country: A Novel: Penguin Publishing Group.
Dodd, J. (1987). Naming and framing: Naturalization and colonization in JM Coetzee's in the heart of the country. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 27(2), 153-161.
Dovey, T. (1988). The novels of JM Coetzee: Lacanian allegories (Vol. 86): Ad. Donker.
Dragunoiu, D. (2001). Existential Doubt and Political Responsibility in JM Coetzee's Foe. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 42(3), 309-326.
Durrant, S. (2012). Postcolonial narrative and the work of mourning: JM Coetzee, Wilson Harris, and Toni Morrison: SUNY Press.
Elmgren, C. (2019). JM Coetzee's Poetics of the Child. Department of English, Stockholm University,
Gallagher, S. V. (1991). A story of South Africa: JM Coetzee's fiction in context: Harvard University Press.
Gardiner, A. (1987). JM Coetzee's Dusklands: colonial encounters of the Robinsonian Kind. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 27(2), 174-184.
Graham, L. V. (1996). The use of the female voice in three novels by JM Coetzee.
Hammacher, K., & Kossew, S. (1996). Pen and Power: A Post-Colonial Reading of JM Coetzee and André Brink (Vol. 27): Rodopi.
Head, D. (1996). Critical Perspectives on J. M. Coetzee. Research in African Literatures, 27(4), 205-207.
Head, D., & Dominic, H. (1997). JM Coetzee (Vol. 6): Cambridge University Press.
Kehinde, A. (2006). Patriarchal suppression and neurosis: African women's plight in JM Coetzee's in The Heart of the Country. Kelly, M. (2018). Serving ‘a male philosophy’? Elizabeth Costello’s
Feminism and Coetzee’s Dialogues with Joyce. Australian Literary Studies, 33(1).
Loomba, A. (1991). Overworlding the ‘third world’. Oxford Literary Review, 13(1), 164-192.
MacLeod, L. (2006). " Do we of necessity become puppets in a story?" Or narrating the world: On speech, silence, and discourse in JM Coetzee's Foe. MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 52(1), 1-18.
Madhok, S. (2016). Colonialism And Feminism In Jm Coetzee’s Foe: Issues Of Representation Through “Voice” And “Silence”. Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL), 4(4), 428-437.
Myklatun, A. (2018). The Ethics of Proximity in Literature: An Ethical Reading of Immediacy in JM Coetzee's Age of Iron and Foe. UiT Norges arktiske universitet,
Nashef, H. A. (2013). The politics of humiliation in the novels of JM Coetzee: routledge.
Neimneh, S. S., Obeidat, M. M., & Al-Mwajeh, M. O. (2019). Subversive Bodies: JM Coetzee's In the Heart of the Country and Psychoanalytic Feminism. Ars Artium, 20.
Parry, B. (1996). Speech and Silence in the Fictions of JM Coetzee. In Critical perspectives on JM Coetzee (pp. 37-65): Springer.
Poyner, J. (2016). JM Coetzee and the paradox of postcolonial authorship: Routledge.
Price, J. (2008). Coetzee's Foe: Susan Barton's (Un) Reliable Narration and Her Revelation through Misreading.
Saunders, R. (2001). The agony and the allegory: The concept of the foreign, the language of apartheid, and the fiction of JM Coetzee. Cultural Critique(47), 215-264.
Stone, E. K. (2003). Good housekeeping: Single women and global feminism in JM Coetzee’s In the Heart of the Country. ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, 34(2-3).
Tiffin, C., & Lawson, A. (1994). De-scribing empire: post-colonialism and textuality: Taylor & Francis.
Wade, M. (2016). White on black in South Africa: a study of English-language inscriptions of skin colour: Springer.
Watson, S. (1996). Colonialism and the Novels of JM Coetzee. In Critical perspectives on JM Coetzee (pp. 13-36): Springer.
Wisker, G. (2006). Key concepts in postcolonial literature: Palgrave Macmillan.
Published
2019-06-12
How to Cite
Salih, S. J. and Janoory, L. (2019) “On Feminism and Identity in J.M. Coetzee Literature: A Critical Analysis from Post-Colonial Perspective”, Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (MJSSH), 4(3), pp. 44 - 57. doi: 10.47405/mjssh.v4i3.204.
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