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Ecce animot : um percurso analítico pós-humanista através de Elizabeth Costello e Desonra, de J. M. CoetzeeRocha, Lucas Kirschke da January 2017 (has links)
Esta dissertação trata dos Estudos Animais, área que se desenvolve como um rico campo de interdisciplinaridade já em sua origem. Mas para que não se julgue aprioristicamente um campo em suas particularidades, há que se esclarecer pontos em comum aos teóricos das mais diversas origens acadêmicas que compõem os Estudos animais e traçar planos para um futuro significativo. Após estabelecer os necessários diálogos entre teoria e campo social, passo à análise de certos pontos das obras Desonra e Elizabeth Costello, com o objetivo de evidenciar o potencial deste corpus para o desenvolvimento da crítica das categorias de humanidade e animalidade segundo os aportes do Pós-humanismo e inserindo-a no campo dos Estudos Animais. O teórico fundamental para este trabalho é Jacques Derrida, principalmente em sua obra O animal que logo sou. Após apresentar um panorama dos Estudos Animais, sobretudo sob a abordagem de Paul Waldau, trago ao encontro desses autores a pós-humanista Rosi Braidotti, de cuja obra The Post-human retiro as categorias do devir-planetário e devir-animal, as quais dão consequência às análises do corpus literário deste trabalho. Dialogo, ainda, com a Mitleidsethik, a ética da compaixão de Schopenhauer. Concluo que as tarefas dos Estudos Animais e do Pós-humanismo se assemelham no que toca à maior compreensão das interações interespecíficas, para a proposição consequente de novas formas de conviver num mundo mais-que-humano. / This dissertation deals with the Animal Studies, an area that develops as a rich field of interdisciplinarity already in its origin.. But in order not to make an aprioristic judgement of a field in its particularities, it is necessary to clarify points in common to the theoreticians of the most diverse academic origins that compose the Animal Studies and to draw up plans for a significant future. After establishing the necessary dialogues between theory and social field, I proceed to the analysis of certain points of the works Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello, with the objective of highlighting the potential of this corpus for the development of the critique of the categories of humanity and animality according to the contributions of Posthumanism and inserting it in the field of Animal Studies. The fundamental theorist for this work is Jacques Derrida, mainly in his work O animal que logo sou. After presenting an overview of the Animal Studies, especially under the approach of Paul Waldau, I bring to the meeting the post-humanist Rosi Braidotti, whose work The post-human retreat the categories of becoming-earth and becoming-animal, which give consequence to the analysis of the literary corpus of this work. I also dialogue with the Mitleidsethik, the ethic of compassion of Schopenhauer. I conclude that the tasks of Animal Studies and Post-humanism are similar in relation to the greater understanding of the inter-species interactions, for the consequent proposition of new ways of living in a more-than-human world.
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Between text and stage: the theatrical adaptations of J.M. Coetzee's FoeNaidoo, Kareesha January 2016 (has links)
Magister Artium - MA / This thesis will critically analyse two theatrical adaptations of J. M. Coetzee's Foe (1986). Primarily, this thesis will be seeking to understand the complex relationship of the primary text to its adaptations more closely, regarding them not only as second-order versions or interpretations of the novel, but also to consider the way they may retrospectively construct new readings and understandings of the source text. This thesis will not only consider the way in which Foe is used in the adaptations but also how Robinson Crusoe (1719) influenced the adaptors and adaptive process. Theories of adaptation will be discussed, drawing extensively on work by Linda Hutcheon (2006) and Robert Stam (2005). One of the key ideas in adaptation theory is that adaptive fidelity to the source text is neither possible nor desirable, but that adaptation is a more complex, multi-layered intertextual and intermedial interplay of fictional material. One of the aims of this thesis is to ask whether or not Foe can be successfully transposed to the stage. This thesis will serve as a close analysis of the two theatrical adaptations, focusing on the beginning and endings of the respective adaptations. This research will contribute a new approach to Coetzee studies and to Foe in particular by exploring how these texts can lead to a broader understanding of Coetzee's work and the way it crosses into different media.
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Epistolary constructions of identity in Derrida's "Envois" and Coetzee's Age of IronHogarth, Claire Milne. January 2001 (has links)
No description available.
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Epistolary constructions of identity in Derrida's "Envois" and Coetzee's Age of IronHogarth, Claire Milne. January 2001 (has links)
In this thesis, I argue that identity construction is a postal effect: it results from a transmission of some sort, received or sent. I examine three instances of postal effect. In a chapter on Jacques Derrida's "Envois," a collection of fragments presented as if transcribed from a one-way love letter correspondence, I explore the performative force of relayed address. Working from Derrida's account of the literary performative, I point out that the "Envois" letters are addressed to "you" in the singular, which implies an address reserved for a particular subject, but that the postal relay of the collection enacts a repetition of their address. For the reader of the book, this repetition has evocative force which I compare with the force of transference in the context of the psychoanalytic situation. In a second chapter on the "Envois" letters, I examine their haunting effect. The "Envois" letters have an I/we signature that intimates pluralities in the writing subject. I argue that this signature is the effect of a postal relay of another order: a phantom, which Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok define as a gap in the psychic topography of the subject caused by a secret unwittingly received along with a legacy. To a certain extent, the "Envois" letters are written by Plato's "in-voices." In a chapter on J. M. Coetzee's epistolary novel Age of Iron, I explore the gift effects of a posthumous letter. Age of Iron is an epistolary novel consisting exclusively of a single letter written by a dying South African woman, Mrs. Curren, to her daughter, a political objector who has emigrated to the United States. Writing her letter in the knowledge that her death is imminent, Mrs. Curren anticipates her daughter's mourning. Working with J. L. Austin's doctrine of illocutionary forces and Derrida's analysis of the gift event, I postulate two effects of Mrs. Curren's letter, one that annuls the gift in a circular return and another that surpasses this circuit with textual diss
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Return to the farm : landscape as a site for the interrogation of identity in three works of J.M. Coetzee.Nel, David. January 2002 (has links)
The dissertation focuses on 1. M. Coetzee's novels The Life and Times of Michael K., Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life and Disgrace, analysing the central protagonists' engagement with the landscape in general and specifically focussing on the farm as a site on which identities are interrogated. By way of introduction the two central themes, landscape
and identity are highlighted with respect to Coetzee's theoretical work, specifically White Writing and Doubling the Point. Introductory discussion on the 'farm novel' and 'autobiography' is also given in the first chapter.
In the second chapter, Boyhood is examined as an influential text in the rereading of Coetzee's allegorical work Michael K. The intention is to elucidate the power relations which underlie the earlier novel by means of a comparative analysis of the mother-child, father-child culture-child and author-text relationships found in Boyhood. Consideration of Coetzee's
critical analysis of Olive Schreiner's Story of an African Farm is given towards establishing links between Coetzee's fiction and the farm novel genre.
The third chapter focuses on Disgrace as 'another take' on the farm novel. The position of the white male 'self' in post-apartheid South Africa is interrogated through an analysis of the protagonist David Lurie's fictional' return to the farm.' 'Subject'/ 'other' relations are also discussed with a view to understanding identity formation. In the final chapter, conclusions are drawn regarding the relationship between Coetzee's fiction and the farm novel genre. Finally, the failure of lineal consciousness and the' self
becoming redundant are considered. / Thesis (M.A.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg , 2002.
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Embedded subjectivity in the work of J.M. CoetzeeSmuts, Merriman Eckard 03 1900 (has links)
Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is the result of an immersion in the work of J.M. Coetzee. I have taken
various of Coetzee’s novels, namely Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons, Disgrace, The
Master of Petersburg, Foe, Life & Times of Michael K and Slow Man, and constructed
readings of these novels from the inside out. The overarching concern of the
dissertation is the notion of subjectivity and Coetzee’s methods of representing
subjectivity. It is my contestation that the experience of authentic subjective
awareness arises from the process of reading itself. It is not a state of being that is
described by the text, but rather a layered constellation of substitutive exchanges that
emerges from the process of textual relation. The notion of embeddedness serves as a
description 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 conceptual
concern arising from the text itself. In the first chapter (Elizabeth Costello) the
concern is with structure itself. The character of Elizabeth struggles against the
limitation inherent in the process of representation; this struggle is read as an
indication of authentic subjective experience in the face of reduction to a system of
codes. The second chapter (Disgrace) attempts to formulate the dynamic of
subjective awareness in romantic terms. I construct a reading of Lurie’s predicament
in terms that arise from his conceptual environment, in order to indicate the primacy
of textual materiality as the locus of subjective awareness. The notion of the classic
informs the third chapter (The Master of Petersburg). I use an essay by Coetzee to
delineate a conception of the classic, which is then applied as a theoretical framework
for 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 body
as a figure for embedded subjectivity. It emerges that the body as a trope of
embeddedness 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 a
mode of representation that aligns itself with the textual materiality of subjective
being. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis het ontstaan as die gevolg van ‘n noukeurige ondersoek na die werk van
J.M. Coetzee. Ek het myself laat begelei deur die inhoud van verskeie van Coetzee se
boeke, naamlik Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons, Disgrace, The Master of
Petersburg, Foe, Life & Times of Michael K en Slow Man, om intensiewe lesings van
hierdie boeke te konstrueer. Die oorkoepelende bemoeienis van die verhandeling is
die konsep van subjektiwiteit en Coetzee se metodes van subjektiewe voorstelling.
Ek beweer dat die ervaring van outentieke subjektiewe gewaarwording gesetel is in
die leesproses. Dit is nie ‘n toestand van wese wat deur die teks beskryf word nie,
maar eerder ‘n verweefde raamwerk van substituwe wisseling wat kom uit die proses
van tekstuele relasie. Die konsep van inlywing (“embeddedness”) dien as 'n
beskrywing van die manier waarop die teks hierdie ervaring van subjektiwiteit
konkretiseer.
Die struktuur van ondersoek in elke hoofstuk neem as paradigma 'n konsepsuele
vraagstuk wat reeds gesetel is in die teks. In die eerste hoofstuk (Elizabeth Costello)
is die bemoeienis met struktuur as sodanig. Elizabeth se karakter stry teen die
inperking wat noodwending saamgaan met die proses van voorstelling; hierdie stryd
word gelees as 'n aanduiding van outentieke subjektiewe ervaring teenoor die druk
van vermindering tot 'n stel kodes. Die tweede hoofstuk (Disgrace) poog om die
dinamiek van subjektiewe bewustheid te formuleer in terme wat afkomstig is van die
romantiek. Ek konstrueer 'n lees van Lurie se toestand in terme wat kom van sy
konsepsuele omgewing, om sodoende die voorrang van tekstuele materialiteit as die
lokus van outentieke subjektiwiteit aan te dui. Die konsep van die klassieke belig die
derde hoofstuk (The Master of Petersburg). Ek gebruik 'n essay van Coetzee om 'n
begrip van die klassieke te formuleer, wat dan toegepas word as 'n teoretiese
raamwerk waarbinne Dostoevsky se soeke na sy stiefseun ondersoek word. Die
vierde en laaste hoofstuk (Foe, Life & Times of Michael K en Slow Man) fokus op
Coetzee se gebruik van die liggaam as 'n figuur vir ingelyfde subjektiwiteit. Dit blyk
dat die liggaam as 'n figuur van inlywing 'n prominente aspek van Coetzee se werk
vorm deur sy loopbaan. As sodaning is dit 'n baie handige figuur om die dinamiek van inlywing te beskryf as 'n modus van voorstelling wat sigself koppel aan die
materialiteit van die teks.
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Vergonha, sacrifício e testemunho: 3 desmedidas para 3 romances de J. M. Coetzee / Shame , sacrifice and testimony: 3 immoderatte for 3 novels of J. M. CoetzeeOliveira, Carlos Augusto Lima de January 2016 (has links)
OLIVEIRA, Carlos Augusto Lima de. Vergonha, sacrifício e testemunho: 3 desmedidas para 3 romances de J. M. Coetzee. 2016. 183f. – Tese (Doutorado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Letras, Programa de Pós-graduação em Letras, Fortaleza, 2016. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-05-06T11:15:21Z
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Previous issue date: 2016 / This study has as its starting point an articulation between literary discourse and testimonial speech, from the propositions of Giorgio Agamben about the idea of testimony as an Auctor speech, one who is authorized by others to report certain events. This idea of testimony differs from common sense, as something that testifies truthfully and objectively the events, but is much closer to the speech of the invention, where its veracity, and its ethical dimension, achieve what it lacks or even exceeds, reminding the Portuguese critic Silvina Rodrigues Lopes. Thus, this study is interested in analyzing three novels of the South African writer J.M. Coetzee (Waiting for the Barbarians, The Iron Age and Disgrace) as testimonials clippings of changes that spend their narrators, both inside the South African context as in other dimensions symbolized there. A testimony where slips the burden of Shame, such as an ethical manifestation’ power, in that it points out the failure of models so far established (colonialism, Apartheid, the Western civilization project), and a sacrificial order where such narrators-witnesses dive. Sacrifice of white bodies, hitherto immune, legally protected, sacralized. Sacrifice as profanation. / O presente estudo tem como ponto de partida uma articulação entre o discurso literário e o discurso testemunhal, a partir das proposições de Giorgio Agamben a respeito da ideia do testemunho como um discurso de Auctor, aquele que é autorizado por outrem a relatar determinados eventos. Esta ideia de testemunho difere do senso comum, como algo que atesta com veracidade e objetividade os acontecimentos, mas está muito mais próxima do discurso de invenção, onde sua veracidade, e sua dimensão ética, estão mais para aquilo que lhe falta ou mesmo excede, para lembrar a crítica portuguesa Silvina Rodrigues Lopes. Desta forma, interessa a este estudo analisar três romances do escritor sul-africano J.M. Coetzee (À Espera dos Bárbaros, A Idade do Ferro e Desonra) como recortes testemunhais das transformações por que passam seus narradores, tanto dentro do contexto da África do Sul, quanto em outras dimensões simbolizadas ali. Um testemunho onde resvala o peso da Vergonha, como potência de manifestação ética, na medida em que aponta a falência de modelos até então vigentes (colonialismo, Apartheid, o projeto de civilização ocidental), e de uma ordem sacrificial em que mergulham tais narradores-testemunhas. Sacrifício dos próprios corpos brancos, até então imunes, legalmente protegidos, sacralizados. Sacrifício como profanação.
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A history of confession: the dialogue between cynicism and grace in selected novels of J.M. CoetzeeHornby, Catherine Muriel January 2002 (has links)
In introducing the four novels under discussion as a “History of Confession”, this study explores the resistance to the dominant discourse of ‘history’ offered by the sustained confessions of individuals. In examining Coetzee’s oeuvre it is possible to delineate the outline of a dialogue between cynicism and grace, and the effects of these on the process of confession in each of the works Chapter One, dealing with Age of Iron, draws on Levinas’ theory of ‘the Other’ in order to elucidate the role played by the interlocutor or confessor in the process of confession.The recognition of the passage of the self through the Other is integral to the attainment of a state of grace, without which confession cannot be brought to an end The countermanding claims of the writer's will-to-write and duty to society are illuminated as a source of cynicism which overwhelms the intervention of grace. The Master of Petersburg, discussed in Chapter Two, is a confession of the guilt and despair faced by the writer who sacrifices his soul to answer the urge to write. Chapter Three, which examines Coetzee’s excursion into autobiography, represents a continuation of the confessional trend. The distance between the narrator and protagonist of Boyhood illustrates the convolutions of self-deception in the process of confession. The chapter which deals with Disgrace identifies a new trend in Coetzee’s writing:the concern with animals. Levinas’ theory, which identifies the encounter with the Other as necessary to precipitate an intervention of grace, is again useful in explaining how Coetzee has postulated the unassimilable otherness of animals as primary to human ethical development. This chapter also concludes that Disgrace represents a high point in the recovery of both grace and agency in Coetzee’s oeuvre.The concluding chapter suggests that the accumulation of meanings to the term ‘grace’enables its definition as a semi-religious abstraction. Coetzee suggests that belief in its existence has the power to affect interactions on the physical plane, especially those between the self and the Other.
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Dismembering and re-membering in J.M. Coetzee's selected fiction: a decolonial approachNdumiso, Ncube 01 1900 (has links)
Text in English / Abstracts in English, Afrikaans and isiZulu / The present study deploys Ngugi wa Thiongo’s (2009) decolonial concepts of
dismembering and re-membering to critically explore J. M Coetzee’s selected fiction. In
my reading of the novels Waiting for the Barbarians, Foe and Disgrace, I relate
concepts of dismembering and re-membering to decoloniality. In the rendition of Ngugi,
dismembering refers to the displacement and dispossession of the colonised, and their
mental colonisation through cultural imperialism. Re-membering becomes the
decolonial effort to undo physical and psychological dismembering. In the same way in
which, since the Berlin Conference of 1884/5, Africa was divided, mapped and
colonised, the cultures and histories of Africans were dismembered and dominated.
Concerns for the land are expressed in the mapping and the confiscation of land which
is depicted in the native’s desert dwellings in Waiting for the Barbarians, Cruso’s
clearing of the land in Foe and Petrus’s taking over of Lucy’s farm in Disgrace.
Furthermore, Coetzee’s use of language is one important narrative strategy that is
explored to ascertain how Coetzee negates or speaks for, of and about the colonised
through the narrator focaliser. This study reveals the reflexive nature of the selected
novels and seeks answers to the question of why Coetzee tends to make his “black”
characters voiceless and rootless (and sometimes nameless)? Is Coetzee suggesting
that they have been silenced by history, by colonialism, or is he suggesting that he, the
author, has no right to speak on their behalf? In the mode of writing and story-telling, is
Coetzee suggesting the impossibility of the coloniser to speak for the colonised or, in
speaking of them, does he give the servant characters a voice and can this voice be
theirs, or can it be considered reliable? Is Coetzee presenting the power of passivity as
a means of resistance and re-membering? This study, from a decolonial perspective,
engages with the complex way Coetzee handles voice and the question of the agency
of the colonised. / Hierdie studie benut Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (2009) se dekoloniale begrippe van verdeling en
herindeling in ʼn kritiese beskouing van J. M. Coetzee se geselekteerde fiksie. In my
vertolking van die romans Waiting for the Barbarians, Foe en Disgrace, bring ek die
begrippe van verdeling en herindeling in verband met dekolonialisme. In Ngũgĩ se vertolking
verwys verdeling na die verplasing en onteiening van die gekoloniseerdes, en hul geestelike
kolonisering deur kulturele imperialisme. Herindeling word die dekoloniale poging om
fisiese en sielkundige herindeling ongedaan te maak. Op dieselfde manier wat Afrika verdeel,
gekarteer en gekoloniseer is sedert die Berlynse Konferensie van 1884/5, is Afrikane se
kulture en geskiedenisse verdeel en gedomineer. Kommer oor die grond word te kenne gegee
in die kartering en konfiskering van grond – soos uitgebeeld in die boorling se
woestynverblyf in Waiting for the Barbarians, Cruso se opruiming van die grond in Foe en
Petrus se oorname van Lucy se plaas in Disgrace. Verder is Coetzee se taalgebruik ʼn
belangrike verhalende strategie wat bestudeer word om vas te stel hoe Coetzee die
gekoloniseerde ontken of vir, van en oor die gekoloniseerde praat deur middel van die
verteller/fokaliseerder. Hierdie studie openbaar die refleksiewe aard van die geselekteerde
romans en soek vir antwoorde op die vraag van waarom Coetzee geneig is om sy “swart”
karakters stemloos en wortelloos (en soms, naamloos) te maak. Suggereer Coetzee dat hulle
deur die geskiedenis, deur kolonialisme, stilgemaak is – of suggereer hy dat hy, die outeur,
nie die reg het om namens hulle te praat nie? Wil Coetzee deur sy manier van skryf en
vertelling, aan die hand doen dat dit onmoontlik is dat die koloniseerder vir die
gekoloniseerde kan praat; of, wanneer hy van hulle praat, gee hy aan die dienaarkarakters ʼn
stem en kan dit hulle stem wees, of kan dit as betroubaar beskou word? Hou Coetzee die
kraag van passiwiteit voor as ʼn vorm van weerstand en herindeling? Hierdie studie
ondersoek, vanuit ʼn dekoloniale perspektief, die komplekse wyse waarop Coetzee stem en
die vraag van die tussenkoms van die gekoloniseerde hanteer. / Ucwaningo lwamanje luchitha imiqondo ka-Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (2009) yokuqothula
nokujoyina kabusha ukungabuswa ngelinye izwe ekuhloliseni ngokucophelela ukuqamba
okukhethiwe kukaJ.M. Coetzee. Ekufundeni kwami amanoveli i-Waiting for the Barbarians,
Foe and Disgrace, ngichaza imiqondo yokuqothula futhi ukujoyina kabusha ekungabusweni
ngelinye izwe. Ekuhumusheni kuka-Ngũgĩ, ukuqothula kubhekisela ekufudukeni
nasekuthunjweni kwalabo ababuswa ngelinye izwe, kanye nengqondo yabo ekubusweni
ngelinye izwe ngokusebenzisa imiphakathi yamasiko. Ukujoyina kabusha kuba wumzamo
wokungabuswa ngelinye izwe ukulungisa ukuqothula kokukhubazeka ngokomzimba
nangokwengqondo. Ngendlela efanayo lapho i-Afrika ihlukaniswe ngakhona, ihlelwe
ibalazwe futhi ibuzwa ngelinye izwe kusukela kwiNgqungquthela yaseBerlin ka 1884/5,
amasiko kanye nemilando yabantu base-Afrika yaqothulwa futhi yabuswa. Ukukhathazeka
kwezwe kuboniswa ebalazweni nasekuthunjweni komhlaba - njengoba kuboniswe
ezindaweni zokuhlala zasogwadule ku- Waiting for the Barbarians, ku-Cruso ukuhlanzwa
komhlaba-enovelini i-Foe nakuPetrus ukuthatha ipulazi likaLucy enovelini i-Disgrace.
Ngaphezu kwalokho, ukusetshenziswa kolimi lukaCoetzee kuyisisindo esisodwa esibalulekile
sokulandisa esihlolisiswayo ukuze kuqinisekiswe ukuthi uCozezee uphikisa kanjani noma
ukhuluma kanjani, futhi mayelana nababuswa ngelinye izwe ngokusebenzisa umlandisi. Lolu
cwaningo lwembula uhlobo oluthile lokucabanga lwamanoveli akhethiwe futhi lufuna
izimpendulo embuzweni wokuthi kungani uCoetzee ejwayele ukwenza "abalingisi" bakhe
abamnyama bengabonakali futhi bangenasisekelo (futhi ngezinye izikhathi abangenalo
igama). Ingabe uCoetzee uphakamisa ukuthi baye bathuliswa ngumlando, ngukubuswa
ngelinye izwe, noma ingabe uphakamisa ukuthi yena, umbhali, akanalo ilungelo
lokukhuluma egameni labo? Ngendlela yokubhala nokuxoxa ngezindaba, ingabe uCoetzee
uphakamisa ukuthi akunakwenzeka ukuba obusa elinye izwe akhulumele ababuswayo kulelo
zwe noma, uma ekhuluma ngabo, uyabanika abalingiswa abayinceku izwi futhi leli zwi
lingaba ngelabo, noma lingathathwa njengelethembekile? Ingabe uCoetzee uveza amandla
okungahambisani njengendlela yokumelana nokujoyina kabusha? Lolu cwaningo, kusukela
embonweni wokungabuswa ngelinye izwe, luhambisana nendlela eyinkimbinkimbi uCoetzee
alawula izwi kanye nombuzo wokumela ababuswayo. / English Studies / M.A. (Theory of Literature: (English Studies))
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My other - my self: post-Cartesian ontological possibilities in the fiction of J M CoetzeeMfune, Damazio Laston January 2011 (has links)
The central argument of my study is that, among other matters, in his works, J.M. Coetzee could be said to demonstrate that the known Self is an embodied being and is not autonomous. With regard to the latter contention, Coetzee intimates that any two Subjects are implicated in each other’s subjectivities in a reciprocal process that involves what Derek Attridge has called “irruptions of otherness” (2005: xii) into the Subject’s subjectivity. These irruptions, which happen during the encounter, lead to a double loss of autonomy for each Subject and this phenomenon renders the relationship between Subjects non-dichotomus or non-binaric. In other words, the Subject does not produce the contents of his or her consciousness in a sui generis and ex nihilo fashion, and his or her ontological indebtedness to the Other constitutes his or her first loss of autonomy. As for those Others that do possess consciousness, the Subject is implicated in their consciousness and this constitutes the Subject’s second loss of autonomy. These losses counter the near solipsistic Nagelian neo-Cartesianism and paves the way for imagining both intra- and inter-species “intersubjectivity”. It is my view that this double loss of autonomy accounts for the sympathetic and empathetic imagination that we encounter in Coetzee’s fiction. Following Coetzee’s intimations of intersubjectivity through irruptions of otherness, what I see as my contribution to studies on this author’s work through this study is the link I have established between the physicalist strain within the philosophy of mind (whose central thesis is that consciousness is an embodied phenomenon) and a modified Kantian “metaphysics”, especially Immanuel Kant’s conception of concepts as comprising form and content. I have deployed this conception in demonstrating the Subject’s ontological indebtedness to external sources of the content part of consciousness. And, through the Husserlian concept of intentionality, and Kant’s (1929: 27) observation that we cannot have appearances without something that appears, I have linked the Subject to the sources of his or her content and thereby also demonstrated that the Subject is not eternally separated or alienated from those sources. Instead, the Subject is not simply contiguous but coterminous and co-extensive, albeit in a mediated way, with the external sources of the content part of his or her consciousness. Thus, while accepting the thesis of the Other’s radical otherness, I modify the thesis of the Other’s radical exteriority. Ultimately, then, ontologically speaking, the Coetzeean project could be described as one of embodying and grounding the supposedly autonomous, solipsistic and freefloating/disembodied Cartesian Subject. This he does by alerting this Subject, first and foremost, to its embodiedness and, further to that, pointing out its ontological indebtedness to its Others and its implication in the Others’s consciousnesses and so prevent it from continuing with its imperialistic and ecological barbarities. However, ethically speaking, beyond the reciprocal ethics that arises from mutual ontological indebtedness and implication, it is the selflessness that characterises a cruciform logic that comes across as the epitome of Coetzeean ethics.
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