A Narrative Study Of "Autrebiography" In Summertime

J. M. Coetzee, the modern South African novelist who has won twice Booker Prize before hiswinning of Nobel Prize in2003, has published quite a few literary works with various themes anddistinct narrative modes. His latest work Summertime（2009）explores the life of the protagonist JohnCoetzee in1970s through a distinct narrative mode. Since its publication, Summertime has been wellreceived and become a great concern for critics from all over the world. Yet, few critics have focusedon the study of autrebiographical narrative in the novel. After a detailed and systematic study of theautrebiographical narrative in the novel, the thesis argues that Coetzee has successfully appliedmusical and painting techniques into his writing. With ample musical and painting elements fused inwriting, the novel has achieved a strongly musical and painting effect. Meanwhile, the thesis alsoargues that the unique autrebiographical narrative in the novel cannot be merely taken as the need ofartistic form. More importantly, Coetzee attempts to make a confession on the truth by this form,further decoding the distortion of humanity and disclosing the in-depth absurdity of the social realityin South Africa.The thesis mainly falls into five parts.The introduction part in this thesis firstly discusses the significance of the research on Coetzeeand his works before a literature review of Coetzee’s autobiographical fictions. After a presentation ofthe framework of autrebiographical narrative, it makes a detailed literature review on the developmentof biography and points out that biography, autobiography and Coetzee’s “autrebiography” are closelyrelated with each other. And the biography theory is demonstrated to better understand Coetzee’s term“autrebiography”. Finally, it offers the basic thesis frame.Chapter one makes a research on the musical characteristics of the autrebiographical narrative inthe novel. By a detailed analysis of narrative structure and narrative form, this part reveals the musicalcharacteristics and musical effect in Coetzee’s Summertime.Chapter two focuses on the analysis of the painting characteristics of the autrebiographicalnarrative in the novel from three aspects. By analyzing the multiple perspectives, collage techniquesand fragmented impressions in the novel, this part explores the painting characteristics and paintingeffect in Coetzee’s Summertime. Chapter three puts emphasis on the significances of the autrebiographical narrative inSummertime. The value of the autrebiographical narrative in the novel lies in that Coetzee achievesthe effect of defamiliarization, alters the role of author and reader, confesses the truth, and decodes thedistortion of humanity in South Africa.The conclusion is reached in the end that in the autobiographical fiction Summertime, Coetzeesuccessfully creates the musical and painting characteristics, which not only endows the novel withsignificance, but also makes an enormous contribution to the literary art and provides a new narrativemode for novel writing in the future.