The Vagrant Narrative In Coetzee’s South African Novels

John Maxwell Coetzee(1940-),who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003,is an Afrikaner born in South Africa.He worked and studied in Britain and the United States during his youth and now lives in Australia.His novels in South Africa has always focused on the colonial world." Coetzee sees through the obscene poses and false pomp of history,lending voice to the silenced and the despised.Restrained but stubborn,he defends the ethical value of poetry,literature and imagination."Coetzee paid particular attention to the phenomenon of vagrancy in his writings during the South African period.Moreover,the choice of narrative point of view and the construction of narrative space in the novel show the different images of the vagrants and their vagrant states from various aspects.Based on the works of Waiting for the Barbarians,The Life and Times of Michael K,and Age of Iron,this paper analyzes the narrative perspective and the image of the vagrant,the narrative space and the Vagrant State,analyzes the multiple implications of the vagrant narrative,and shows J.M.Coetzee s critical reflection on the colonial politics and his deep concern for the marginalized groups.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this paper is divided into three chapters.The first chapter starts from the narrative perspective and explores how Coetzee uses multiple narrative perspectives to present different images of vagrants.With the help of different narrative perspectives,such as the first-person internal perspective,the third-person external perspective and the interaction of multiple perspectives,Coetzee presents the personal living experience of the vagrants in the colonial society to the readers,showing the marginalization of the vagrants.The second chapter interprets the vagrant state of the characters from the perspective of narrative space.From three aspects of physical space,social space and spiritual space,this chapter analyzes the spatial characteristics in the vagrant narrative text and the vagrant status of the characters under its influence.The living experience in the physical space pushes the protagonist to the road of vagrancy;and the social space is permeated with the turbulent history of racial segregation and conflict;the spiritual space shows the mental trauma,shame and diaspora of the vagrants at the edge of the discourse of power.The third chapter interprets the multiple meanings of the vagrant narrative.The vagrant narrative contains Coetzee’s critical reflection on the colonial politics and his deep concern for the vagrants.In Waiting for the barbarians,the lies of the empire about the image of the barbarian Other are intuitively revealed through the true first-person perspective of the archon,thus deconstructing the stereotype of the Other under the imperial cognitive violence and subverting the discourse authority of the imperial colonization.In The Life and Times of Michael K,through multiple narrative perspectives,Coetzee shows K’s vagrant behavior of constantly escaping from the camp and pursuing freedom,which is exactly K’s resistance to the discipline of power The oasis of life that K seeks in this particular narrative space is also J.M.Coetzee’s hope for a harmonious relationship between man and nature in a racial society.Age of Iron portrays the vagrant Vercueil and the Other images from the perspective of Curren,and presents the tragic life situation of the Black people under the racial rule.At the same time,through the monologue narration from the first person perspective,the readers can have a deep understanding of the White Curren’s deep feelings for the Black people and the help she provides for the Black people,thus showing Curren’s attitude of being responsible for the Other.Meanwhile,in the atmosphere of racial conflict created by the narrative space of the novel,the Black vagrant Vercueil finally becomes Curren’s messenger,which highlights the importance of their feelings beyond racial segregation.In this way,Coetzee explores the rebuilding of a more open racial relationship based on love and trust,hoping to emerge from the "Age of Iron" of apartheid.