Dissolved State and Identity in John Maxwell Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K within the scope of the Postcolonial Other

Abstract

Regardless of the situation, human rights are expected to be maintained and safeguarded. We can infer from this that such rights are automatically terminated in times of war. Michael K’s futile attempts to obtain travel documents to Cape Town lawfully serve as an example of how much people rely on the efficient operation of all governmental institutions, while his entire life demonstrates the significance of personal freedom and freedom of movement. Michael K keeps quiet, not only because he is alone for most of his life, but also because silence is a subliminal kind of resistance. It makes no difference if K is conscious of his heroic resistance or not; what counts is that he says very little because he has nothing to say. He is reluctant to share his tale. He doesn’t want to be recognized, perceived, or misinterpreted. This paper touches upon the issues of dissolution of the individual, silence, other, state, and the position of the traumatized and the otherized in the gruesome and cruel apartheid in South Africa by scrutinizing the major points in John Maxwell Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K. Postcolonial theorists’ views are also prioritized in the analysis of the novel concerning the aforementioned concepts and the theoretical background is formed in accordance with the other, dissolution of state and silence.

Keywords

• Other
• Michael K
• Silence
• Dissolved State
• Apartheid

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