Beyond Conventions: The Nomadic Smooth Space in J.M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K
Loading...
Date
2012
Authors
Advisor
Editor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Dutch and South African Studies, Faculty of English
Title alternative
Abstract
This article traces the processes governing the creation of literary places in J.M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K. The recognition of elements characteristic of pastoral,
anti-pastoral and post-pastoral modes of spatial organisation in renderings of the City of Cape Town and the South African countryside constitutes the point of departure for the analysis. Conventional patterns are questioned and subverted, and ultimately proven
unfit for the representation of the moments of social and political distress in late twentieth century South Africa. The novel’s protagonist suggestively navigates the interpretation process into the field of postmodern theories of space. The distinction between ‘smooth’
and ‘striated’ space proposed by French philosophers Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze establishes a revealing set of correspondences and evinces previously uncovered exegetic layers of the narrative.
Description
Sponsor
Keywords
J.M. Coetzee, South Africa, literary convention, pastoral, ecocriticism, space, place, city, country, Michel Foucault, Félix Guattari, Gilles Deleuze, smooth space, striated space, heterogeneous, hybridity
Citation
Werkwinkel vol. 7(2), 2012, pp. 113-134