Michael K: Pastiche, parody or the inversion of Michael Kohlhaas

Abstract

John Coetzee's writing is a rewriting of texts of South African and world literature: Dusklands is based on South African travel writing, In the Heart of the Country on the South African plaasroman, especially Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm, Foe on Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and The Master of Petersburg on Dostoevski's Demons (cf. Fanger 1994:15; Horn P. 1996). Life and Times of Michael K, too, has been studied for its relationship to Kafka (Attwell 1993; Penner 1989; Horn P. 2000). Nadine Gordimer rejected the reference to Kafka and said that K “probably stands for Kotze or Koekemoer and has no reference, nor need it have, to Kafka” (1984:3). But as far as I can see nobody has yet picked up the possible reference to Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas which is suggested by the title.