Coetzee Fictional Fate And Redemption

Coetzee's novel presents the change of man's fate, which embodies a mode repeatedly constructed by him: the character's soul is redeemed in the "spirally declining" fate. The redemption is not the salvation from sin through other people's sacrifice, nor is it aim at arriving at another realm. However the characters uncompromisingly live in suffering to acquire independent existence to the degree of personality, so that the real sense of life can be confirmed. Therefore, the characters under Coetzee's pen bear the pain of existence, sink into the plight of morality, and perplex themselves in the predicament of value. They look for a marginalized settlement, desire to express themselves in silence and outlet their inner uproar. With their stubborn passiveness, they revolt against all authorities and centers, hoping to reach "the last land of humanity" and achieve the self-redemption of soul. The pattern displaying character's fate and redemption in Coetzee's novel is derived from his tough growing experience, the influence of traditional European narration, and his thinking on South Africa's reality and western civilization. The uniqueness in his writing indicates his resistance against the authorities hidden in politics, languages and all human civilization, and against the resignation of "the men in history". This paper falls into five parts:The preface: explaining the value of studying Coetzee; summarizing the current research situation of Coetzee; presenting the basis and significance of the paper's subject matter; defining the meaning of redemption in the paper with reference to its connotation in religion and literature theory.The first part: expatiating various changes of the characters' fate on the three dimensions of existence, morality and value; through the recurrence of the given characters' fate and the relevant background in Coetzee's works; outlining a "spirally declining" curve of the characters' fate from the horizontal angle.The second part: analyzing the characters' self-redemption strategies in front of sharply declining fate in Coetzee's works. They keep in silence and refuse to express themselves, deconstruct authority with uproar, and marginalize themselves to resist center so that independent personality can be preserved and the return of humanity can be realized.The third part: discussing the causes that result in the mode of characters' fate and redemption, from which we can find the trace of the writer's growth experience, the shadow of European literature represented by Kafka and Beckett and the trail of the writer's contemplating on South Africa's reality and west civilization.The conclusion: from the two dimensions of "authority" and "history", concluding the significance presented by the uniqueness of the characters' fate and redemption in Coetzee's works.