The Phenomena of the Forgotten and Silence in the Novels Of J. M. Coetzee

Abstract

In this paper the authors examine the phenomenon of the forgotten silence in the novels of J. M. Coetzee, South African author. The subject of research includes novels Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), Times of Michael K (1983), Disgrace (1999) and Foe (1986). Almost all the characters in Coetzee’s novels have problems with memory and speech. Years and loneliness on a deserted island left a mark on the memory of Robinson Crusoe in the novel Foe, while Friday is unable to speak because the slavers cut off his tongue, however, despite the lack of system for communication, Susan Barton persistently tries to find a way and teach Friday to speak. Michael K, the main protagonist of the novel Life and Times of Michael K, who is not only unable to remember the whole, but only fragments, due to the trauma of the civil war, he is not even able to speak due to a physical defect - a cleft lip, which spoils his appearance and limits his communication with other people. In the novel Waiting for the Barbarians, in addition to the problem with the speech of the unnamed girl, the phenomenon of collective forgetting occurs, because in addition to the Magistrate, other characters in the novel have problems with memory, this kind of problem of collective forgetting can also be found in the novel Disgrace, in which, apart from Professor David Lurie, with memory have Lucy his daughter, his students and other characters of the novel.
Coetzee represents the inherent separation of the individuality, time, and the author’s multiple subjectivity, thus challenging the inferences of Western reasoning and the realist novel with totalizing narratives of postcolonial South African history, unwilling to recognize the borderline between fiction and history.
J. M. Coetzee employed elaborate aesthetic value, allegories, intertextuality, and metatextuality throughout his literary works. He emphasizes the act of both writing and speaking with in lifestyle of his protagonists, whose texts are incorporated into the storytelling, adding layers of significance.