earticle

영어

J.M. Coetzee’s Boyhood is part one of his autobiographical trilogy: Scenes from Provincial Life: Boyhood, Youth, Summertime. By defining Boyhood as an autobiography, this paper examines how Coetzee employs third-person present tense point of view as a strategy for revealing his truthful confession, (un)belonging. First, the use of the third-person present tense in Boyhood allows the narrator to present his estranged self and then to more objectively confront the historical self. The distance created by this point of view enables the narrator to avoid self-deception and generates a dialogue between the ‘self-of-writing’, which is doing the writing, and the written self. This leads the reader to consider the protagonist John’s confession as Coetzee’s own. Second, John, who experiences the prevalent (post)colonial dichotomy and discourse, resists belonging to the discriminatory system in South Africa. John responds to it by engaging in his unusual relationship between his father and mother and by experiencing emotional and physical reactions such as his vulnerable mind, illness, and even favorable response to English culture. Finally, John’s (un)belonging status between Afrikaans and English culture is transcended through identification with the farm. John recognizes that the farm, which is the land, does not represent any of the systems of Afrikaans Nationalism, English culture, or native South Africans.