| Throughout the 20th century, notions such as identity, | | | | Riebeeck and Simon van der Stel were so good while |
| self and the other have been consequently | | | | Lord Charles Somerset was so bad. [...] Andries |
| constructed and deconstructed and have received | | | | Pretorius and Gerrit Maritz and the others sound like |
| new areas of interest. The notion of hybrid identity, for | | | | the teachers in the high schools or like Afrikaners on |
| example, has been transformed from a technique of | | | | the radio: angry and obdurate and full of menaces and |
| distinguishing pure from infected blood (from a racial | | | | talk about God. (65-66) |
| point of view, but not only), to one of the key elements | | | | Coetzee is an Afrikaner (Dutch), as well as the |
| of political correctness: nations have become | | | | majority of the South-African population. There is a |
| overrated, while cultural and regional identities have | | | | small English minority, "aside from himself and his |
| gained ground. | | | | brother, who are English only in a way" (67). He sees |
| In this essay, I propose a closer view into the | | | | himself as English, even though appearances would |
| cross-identities structures of an Apartheid South-Africa | | | | say otherwise. Afrikaners are seen as dangerous: |
| ruptured by race, religion, political and cultural views, and | | | | They wield their language like a club against their |
| so on. J. M Coetzee is indeed the typical result of this | | | | enemies. On the streets it is best to avoid groups of |
| hybridization: he is an atheist Dutch, living in Africa, going | | | | them; even singly the have a truculent, menacing air. [...] |
| to a Catholic school alongside with the Coloured, | | | | It is unthinkable that he should ever be cast among |
| Americans and Russians, not to say that he's a man | | | | them: they would crush him, kill the spirit in him. (124-5) |
| amongst women. He is the result of the clash of | | | | Apart from the racial and national segregation, as any |
| histories: Dutch, Anglo-Saxon, Eastern European, | | | | traditional society, South-African women also have a |
| African heritage have joined into one cultural identity | | | | well diminished status in the society. Coetzee's mother |
| artifact. | | | | is not allowed to own a horse and to replace it, she |
| As previously stated, identity plays a lead role in the | | | | buys a bike ignoring her husband's categorical |
| demonstration. It can be viewed as a way of gaining | | | | reproaches that women should not ride bicycles. Nor |
| awareness of oneself and the other, but, throughout | | | | can she claim her possessions when her husband |
| history it has been used as a means of subjugation in | | | | goes bankrupt. She is the typical image of a woman's |
| the name of imperialism. Usually the self (the | | | | social sacrifice, as she "spent a year at university |
| conqueror, the Empire) is the point of origin, the genesis | | | | before she had to make way for her youngest |
| of civilization, while the other is the exotic, the savage, | | | | brothers". (124). Coetzee is caught between his |
| that is interesting until it becomes dangerous for the | | | | parents during fights, but, even though he supports his |
| ways of the Power. | | | | mother, he cannot be but a (future) man. |
| Postmodernism has brought a changing of roles, | | | | There is also a very strong sense of repressing |
| moving the viewpoint from the centre to the margins, | | | | sexuality: even though his parents are rather open |
| from the Empire, to its victims. | | | | about the subject (his mother actually owned a book |
| Power, as seen by Foucault is a path to dominating | | | | about that), the school officials totally reject even to |
| the weak. According to the French philosopher, it "has | | | | mention it. When he takes the book to school, it |
| no structural relation to a social totally neither does it | | | | instantly becomes a study material for all the boys, but |
| presuppose an institution as the origin of its activities", | | | | when discovered by the authority, he is silently, but |
| and "following Foucault's archaeological analysis, is also | | | | nonetheless violently reprimanded: |
| non-subjective" (Williams, 177), as it doesn't belong to | | | | [...] his heart pounds as he waits for the announcement |
| one subject or another. The self is now seen as a | | | | and the shame that will follow. The announcement |
| subject, as a representation of the subject-ed, as the | | | | does not come; but in every passing remark of |
| controlled (left) or constituted (middle) in a relation of | | | | Brother Gabriel's he finds a veiled reference of the evil |
| Power, that is, Power discourses of any kind constitute | | | | that he, a non-Catholic, has imported into the school. |
| the subject (Butler, 50-1). | | | | (147) |
| Boyhood... is the starting point of an autobiographical | | | | Edward Said, in one of his most famous works, |
| series of novels. It represents the struggle of a child | | | | Culture and Imperialism, states that the largest part of |
| who cannot find his own identity, but is gradually built | | | | Earth's population has been affected in some way or |
| into a confusing whirlpool of different, simultaneous | | | | another by empires of the past (4). He adds that |
| versions of the same Coetzee. Each version is | | | | "Imperialism did not end, did not suddenly become 'past', |
| catalyzed by a different encounter with the other, that | | | | once decolonization had set in motion the dismantling |
| is, the self is seen in the mirror of the other. He cannot | | | | of the classical empires" (341). Consequently, we deal |
| exist without the other, he is the Frankenstein of | | | | with a highly complicated equation of History and |
| imperialism. There is no egocentric "I", there is no mirror | | | | Power: |
| in which he can say "I am this" or "I am that". The | | | | If at the outset we acknowledge the massively |
| mirror has become an ocean of percents and trends. | | | | knotted and complex histories of special but |
| Coetzee feels the need to keep certain appearances | | | | nevertheless overlapping and interconnected |
| to prevent his family from noticing the infection with | | | | experiences - of women, of Westerners, of Blacks, of |
| outer elements: | | | | national states and cultures - there is no particular |
| He shares nothing with his mother. His life at school is | | | | intellectual reason for granting each and all of them an |
| kept a tight secret from her. She shall know nothing he | | | | ideal and essentially separate status. Yet we would |
| resolves, but what appears on his quarterly report, | | | | wish to preserve what is unique about each so long as |
| which shall be impeccable. [...] As long as the report is | | | | we also preserve some sense of the human |
| faultless, she will have no right to ask questions. (5) | | | | community and the actual contests that contribute to |
| The great secret of his school life, the secret he tells | | | | its formation, and of which they are all a part. (16) |
| no one at home, is that he has become a Roman | | | | Therefore, Coetzee is an eclectic result of a hybrid |
| Catholic, that for all practical purposes he 'is' a Roman | | | | community, with an identity of his own, not pertaining to |
| Catholic. (18) | | | | any individual groups, but a part of them all. Homi |
| But this other is not only viewed through the | | | | Bhabha defines this rhetoric of hybridity as "the location |
| perspective of the child. It has a very strong | | | | of culture": hybridity is a limited paradigm of colonial |
| geographical and cultural valence, with an either/or | | | | anxiety. Therefore, colonial hybridity is a "cultural form", |
| relation between the elements that make up the | | | | which "produced ambivalence in the colonial masters |
| society, in this case, South Africa. These schizoid | | | | and as such altered the authority of power". Also, |
| relationships between groups cannot be omitted when | | | | Bakthin's polyphony is a very popular item in folklore |
| dealing with post-colonial literature. | | | | and anthropological studies. (Wikipedia, Hybridity). |
| He not only keeps his school/social life well hidden | | | | Coetzee manages to create a distance between |
| from the eyes of his parents, but also his allegiances: | | | | himself as a character and an objective viewer by |
| he has hidden a number of drawings where he would | | | | referring to himself using the 3rd person, but, at the |
| show Russia's naval victories, for "liking the Russians | | | | same time, he cannot escape from himself. What he is |
| was not part of the game, it was not allowed". Mixing | | | | may be impossible to define through introspection, but |
| was not allowed either. The society is constructed so | | | | when adding the other(s) in the equation, the result is |
| as each member plays one particular role, and the | | | | prone to appear: J.M. Coetzee. |
| Power made sure they were kept through such | | | | Works Cited |
| means as propaganda: | | | | Coetzee, J. M. Boyhood, Scenes From A Provincial |
| There are white people and Coloured people and | | | | Life. Lodon: Vintage, 1998 |
| Natives, of whom the Natives are the lowest and | | | | Rohmann Chris. The Dictionary of Important Ideas and |
| most derided. The parallel is inescapable: the Natives | | | | Thinkers. London: Arrow Books, 2002 |
| are the third brother. | | | | Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. London: |
| [...] Although, in examinations, he gives the correct | | | | Vintage, 1994 |
| answers to all the history questions, he does not know, | | | | Butler, Christopher. Postmodernism, A Short |
| in a way that satisfies his heart why Jan van | | | | Introduction. |