Ability in disability: J. M. Coetzee's Life & Times of Michael K and the empowerment of the disabled

Abstract

This article argues that J. M. Coetzee's works assume the dignity and central position of the disabled in the universe. It operates, in the main, from the template provided by one of Coetzee's novels in which a disabled character appears centrally and is even the eponymous hero. The Life & Times of Michael K (1983. London: Penguin) is read as a postmodern allegory, closely tied to a South African context that handicapped and disabled during apartheid. This novel transforms the urgent social concerns into more universal troubles, making disability in Coetzee's literary repertoire a signifier of the decadence and disillusionment in Africa. The trope of disability signifies the black people's struggle to discover their true identity. Michael K attempts to reinscribe the figure of the “other” commonly employed to validate the Afrikaner myth. Through this character, Coetzee suggests that black people can break out of racial and social hierarchies. On a larger political and social plane, Coetzee insinuates that for political stability and economic independence to be a reality in Africa, the continent's disabled must be involved. To Coetzee, the empowerment of the disabled in Africa is an index of the empowerment of the continent.