The nature of escape : J.M. Coetzee's Dusklands and Life and times of Michael K

The nature of escape : J.M. Coetzee's Dusklands and Life and times of Michael K

Coetzee, J. M., 1940- -- Criticism and interpretation

Escape in literature

Christopher, Colin Shield

2007

Wright, Laura, 1970-

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This thesis is intended as an examination of the usage of land as an escape from oppression in J .M. Coetzee's Dusklands and Life & Times of Michael K. My particular focus is on the protagonist, Jacobus Coetzee, of the second novella (�The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee�) in Dusklands and on the protagonist, Michael K, of Life & Times of Michael K. Most recent criticism of Coetzee's writing has been in the postcolonial field, with a focus on politics and ethics. Although some politicized discussion is inevitable concerning any Coetzee text, I have focused more on the ecocritical side of Coetzee. Jacobus Coetzee personifies a historically typical view of the Anglo-Christian male as he considers the land and everything connected to it to be under his dominion. Michael K, made to feel like a displaced outsider in what is presumably his home country, goes in search of his true self and finds that he is connected to the land. By weaving text with actual events from South African history, I show how both of these characters claim similar connections to the land, but for very different reasons.

2014-09-22

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