Group, Nation, State: J.M. Coetzee and Problems of Nationality in Postcolonial Countries

Abstract

Summary J.M. Coetzee's adoption of Australia as his permanent home is puzzling in view of his preoccupation in his work with South Africa. His autobiographical works Boyhood (1997) and Summertime (2009), however, as well as Diary of a Bad Year (2007), which, I shall argue, has autobiographical elements, show that the protagonist, whose name is John Coetzee, had experiences in South Africa which have prevented any simple attachment to the country, where group loyalties and antagonisms often replace love of country. The protagonists of Boyhood and Summertime are of Afrikaans descent though their first language is English, which has further problematised “nationality” (a word which I consider carefully) for them. Seňor C in Diary of a Bad Year has come to see the state – all states – as potentially tyrannical. A further and important matter which is discussed is the relationship of the author with his protagonists in these works.