"Imitating" Lawrence:Body Writing In J.M.Coetzee's Three Novels

John Maxwell Coetzee(1940---)is one of the most prominent contemporary South African novelists and the recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature.Brought up in South Africa,where apartheid has governed every aspect of life,Coetzee explored this problem in all its complexities in most of his works.Derek Attridge,the famous critic,observes that John Maxwell Coetzee is engaged in a rich dialogue with a variety of classic writers,especially the European writers in the first half of the 20 th century.In his comment “The Story of Himself”,John Updike states that Coetzee chose D.H.Lawrence in the end.In the biographical novel Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life ll,Coetzee regularly quotes Lawrence,including his thoughts about body.Meanwhile,in his works,he spares no effort to describe body and sex.But Coetzee departs from his literary mentor in that he writes about body in a very special way.This thesis examines the body writing in J.M.Coetzee's three novels: Waiting for the Barbarians(1980),Foe(1986),and Disgrace(1999)with special attention to his imitation of Lawrence's body writing strategies,namely,code of chastity,aesthetics of disability and male body worship.The purpose of this thesis is to explore Coetzee's intention of imitating or appropriating Lawrence's “ body writing”,and prove that in the context of post-colonial writing,Coetzee deliberately appropriates the western canonized writer D.H.Lawrence to delineate the conflicts between the colonizer and the colonized,as well as the strategic body rebellion of the colonized.In these three novels,Coetzee makes it possible for the colonized's body to speak for itself and refuse to accept the definition and interpretation of the colonizer.The thesis includes five chapters.The Introduction deals with the life and major works of J.M.Coetzee.Then,it gives a literature review of Coetzee studies both at home and abroad.Then,it undertakes the theories of body writing.In addition,Coetzee's imitation of Lawrence's body writing and his own vision of body writing are introduced in this section.Chapter Two depicts how Coetzee utilizes Lawrence's body writing as the way of rebellion of the colonized.In Waiting for the Barbarians,Coetzee delineates the alienated and abjected body of the barbarian girl.He utilizes Lawrence's code of chastity as a way to explain the barbarian girl's rebellion.Chapter Three expounds Lawrence's aesthetics of disability.It focuses on the muted body of Friday in Foe,and proves that the tongueless Friday is incomplete while dance,music,and the signs of his body make him a wholeness and he uses his body speak for him,which is his art of rebellion.Chapter Four firstly explores another feature of Lawrence's body writing,namely,male body worship and it focuses on the two males,Lurie and Petrus in Disgrace.By analyzing the objectified body of Lurie and Lucy through sexual violence,it aims to prove that Coetzee subverts the traditional male figures in Disgrace in order to present his thoughts about responsibilities for the new settlers in the New South Africa.The Conclusion makes a summary of the last four chapters.My conclusion is that by “imitating” or appropriating Lawrence's body writing,Coetzee successfully delineates the conflicts and the strategy of the body rebellion of the colonized in these three novels and Coetzee makes it possible for the colonized's body to speak for them.At the same time,he enriches post-colonial body writing and shows his admiration for and rejection of Lawrence in his works.