The reader's quest for meaning in the novels of J. M. Coetzee

Abstract

In this study I will show that the novels of J.M. Coetzee block the reader's desire to impose meaning, and that we are thereby invited to participate in a dialogue with the text. The body of literature in which I explore the possibility of a coherent thwarting of the reader's quest for meaning is the prose fiction of J.M. Coetzee published in English: Dusklands (1974), In the Heart of the Country (1977), Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), Life and Times of Michael K (1983), and Foe (1986). I argue that Coetzee's novels make us experience the basically arbitrary relationship between the sign and what it signifies, and that features of the novels' structure both attract attention and prevent us from forgetting we are reading fiction. I go on to consider that in resisting the unquestioned imposition of meaning, Coetzee's novels emphasize the contention of Jacques Derrida that reading is a "supplementing" process, in which the reader is both replacing something which is missing, and also supplying something additional to the work. Using this hypothesis, I describe the various features of J.M. Coetzee's fiction I see as resisting the reader's desire to manufacture or retrieve meaning. In the second part of my study I suggest that the protagonists can be seen as readers, and point out the similarities between the difficulties faced by the reader of J.M. Coetzee's novels and those encountered by the protagonists. Finally I describe some of Coetzee's comments on anthropology which illuminate the concerns of his fiction. I then develop these ideas in terms of three of the novels: In the Heart of the Country, Waiting for the Barbarians, and Life and Times of Michael K. I investigate the development of the theme of 'coherence versus chaos' in these works.