| J. M. Coetzee is one of the outstanding Dutch-South African author and the NobelPrize laureate for literature in2003. Since the1970s, his publications have earned himgreat renown all over the world, including Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), Life andTimes of Michael K (1983), Disgrace (1999), Youth (2002), Slow Man (2005), TheChildhood of Jesus (2013) and so on. His longstanding popular and critical acclaim isevidenced by the fact that almost all his works are still in print and before his winningof the Nobel Prize, he had garnered numerous international awards, including England’sprestigious Man Booker Prize (twice), CAN award—the most important literary awardin South Africa, France’s Prix Femina Etranger, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, theLannan Award for Fiction, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize as well as theJerusalem Prize. This paper analyzes the strategy of dialogic in Disgrace, the strategywhich made the novels become a unity from the ideologies to the forms. The unity bothshows exchanges in thoughts and dialogic characteristics in structure.The main body of the thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is an analysisabout the dialogic characteristics from the structure to the characters in the novels. Heredialogic relationships mainly include the relationship between protagonist Lurie and theauthor, between different characters, between Lurie and the self, and between authorand reader. In these dialogic relationships, Coetzee always tries his best to makeprotagonists speak for themselves and never imposes his speech on them. The purposeof dialogue is to promote the mutual understanding and lead readers to better understandthe themes of the novel, which gradually emerges through the various dialogicrelationships. For Bakhtin, the relationship between author and reader also plays animportant role in the novel through which the author can make good communicationwith the reader, and meanwhile the reader will have a better comprehension of the novelas well as its author. For this reason, it is a must for the author to consider readers’ability to comprehend and their horizon of expectation during his composition. Thesecond part mainly talks over the characteristics in the ideologies.The analysis on various dialogic relationships and forms primarily aims to deepenour comprehension towards its ideological content. Will humans be really able to escapehistory? In the face of cruel social reality, how can they fulfill their own peace deepdown and how can they redefine themselves? As a matter of fact, the thoughts we derive from Disgrace take us far beyond the contradictions it presents to us on itssurface. With various and colorful dialogic relationships and their behaviors, Coetzeetries to show us that when facing the cruelty of reality, the only way to fulfill self-redemption is to truly look inside you and brace up to your misfortunes and to followthe trends of historical development. It is getting rid of the monopoly and the privilegeby all these characteristics and modes. It takes on an occasion that is equal andharmonious and shows the profound consider of Coetzee about the value of people andthe way of existent. Meanwhile, its deep thoughts also contain profound socialsignificant. Coetzee’s writing, with its fine structure, meaningful dialogue andpenetrating speculation, brings us to face directly history and its contradictions.However, he will never provide us with definite answers because change is the eternalprinciple. |
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