Chapter review of 'The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee' in J. M. Coetzee's "Dusklands"

J. M. Coetzee’s Dusklands is an antagonising interaction with the violence of colonialism, and later with imperialism. The novel which deals with two very different protagonist and stories still has an unnatural ability to draw in the reader, make them uncomfortable and still enthrals them enough to keep them reading. This review focuses on, “The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee”, the second novella of the book which focuses on the ever “charming” Jacobus and his exploits.

At first glance, the story of Jacobus is a simple one that follows the story of a man trekking up north in southern Africa with his Korana slaves in order to hunt elephants in Namaqualand. The story is solely depicted through the perspective of Jacobus, with his description of events, being all that the reader is presented with. This particular form of narration allows for Jacobus to no only relate the stories to the reader, but more importantly, it acts as a tool to show the discussions which he has with himself, which allows for interesting avenues into how the novella is read.

This form of narration allows for two very important things to happen: it gives the reader a very vivid account of Jacobus himself, and it makes the reader aware of the ‘other’, the individuals who are outside of Jacobus himself. These two occurrences in conjunction with one another, draws the reader in further and further, making them question and allowing them to be inquisitive about the story as they are constantly aware of Jacobus and his train of thought while also being blatantly aware of those around him, regardless of the fact that they are never given a voice of their own.

This is what makes the entire novel, and this particular novella, so alluring. It uses this unique narrative to take something as disgusting as Jacobus prodding a pus filled pimple in his buttocks or something as horrible as Jacobus committing genocide against a large group of people from Namaqua, and makes it so enticing to the point where you are unable to avert your gaze.

The novel is jarring, disgusting, discomforting and provocative but thoroughly engaging and enticing. The novel’s unique narrative and J. M. Coetzee’s gripping writing, successfully draws in the reader and requires the reader to question and grapple with various ideas brought forward on various levels within the story.

Works used

Coetzee, J. M. Dusklands. Great Britain: Vintage, 2004. Print.

     

The Lost World of the Kalahari by Laurens van der Post

Chapter Review: Van der Post, Laurens. The Lost World of the Kalahari. Great Britain: Hogarth Press. 1958. Print.

"This is the story of a journey in a great wasteland and a search for some pure remnant of the unique and almost vanished First People of my native land, the Bushman of Africa" (van der Post 11).

This is the opening line to chapter one “The Vanished People” and to the book. Through chapter one van der Post takes the reader on a journey of the “Bushman of Africa” (11). Van der Post describes the physique of the Bushman, the sound of the language and their way of life. The language used to describe the physical appearance of the Bushman is compared to animals and seems to be a transparent description of their bodies; a description that makes the Bushman seems as “the other”. Van der Post describes a man’s figure to that of a “Ruben’s Cupid, protruding in front and even more behind” (13). He continues to say that the Bushman “had a behind which served it rather as the hump serves a camel” (13). These are one of the many ways that van der Post uses to describe the Bushman. The sound of the language he says is a “joy to hear, and the click of the complex consonants flashes on his tongue” (15).

Van der Post also uses stories told to him by his grandfather, aunt and a cattle-herder to tell the stories of the Bushman and their ways of life. One story that is beautiful of the way the Bushmen hunt is that they “use the lion as his hunting dog” (19). Van der Post explains that the Bushman would follow the lion and allow the lion to kill and eat his prey to feed on only enough to satisfy his hunger. The Bushman would then scare the lion away with smoke and fire to eat the rest. This story shows how the Bushman lived within nature and used what nature gave them to survive. Van der Post says that the Bushman never killed for fun but only for survival. This is shown on the rock art, as Van der Post writes that it is “there in his paintings on his beloved rock for those who can see with their hearts as well as their eyes” (22).

Images from Jonathan Stedall

Reading this chapter of van der Post made me think of other researchers and writers of Africa, those like Eugene Marais, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Francois Levaillant. All experts in their fields of study, they observed and wrote about human life and behaviour in Africa. Van der Post’s writing is describing the life of the Bushman and Hottentots and not necessarily comparing them to apes but in all contexts the Bushman or Hottentots are seen as “the other”. Sometimes through van der Post’s writing he seems to describe people other than the Bushman as the other in Africa. He describes the Bushman as decorating the rocks with paintings and says that “other races went through Africa like locusts, devouring and stripping the land” but the Bushman is there because he belongs there (32). Van der Post shows a contrasting view of the Bushman who uses nature to survive and “other races” that use Africa to get what they want out of it (32). This also in a way compliments J.M. Coetzee’s chapter in White Writings about the idleness of the Hottentots in Africa. Both show that the way of life for the Bushman and Hottentots is not one of laziness but respecting nature and living as part of nature and not superior to nature.

Image from Tara/David Coulson

Van der Post has a beautiful writing style, which is in between a narrative style and that of a study of the people. He adds in stories from family and other people and this gives the chapter a human aspect with human experiences. Van der Post has a rich descriptive way of writing which allows the reader to visualize what he is writing about.

Works Cited: 

Stedall, Jonathan. “Free to Love”. Jonathan Stedall. Web. 22 April 2016.

http://jonathanstedall.co.uk/heaven/sample.php

The British Museum. "Rock Art in North Africa". Khanacademy. Web. 22 April 2016.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa/north-a/algeria-and-libya/a/rock-art-in-north-africa

Dusklands on Monday

Dear Thandi and Gustav,

Just to confirm that we will meet from 10.30 - 12.30 on Monday morning. Gustav will introduce us to Dusklands, and then we will spend some time discussing each of the narratives in detail. Apart from preparation for the novel, please could you also do the following:


1) Remember to comment in detail on one another's posts from last week - your comments could include suggestions for new directions of enquiry, questions about content or about argument, as well as editorial mark-ups.


2) Offer written responses to the following questions. Your answers will be private to yourselves, unless you wish to share them with me. Please bring them with you to class to exchange with your classmate:





- What do you feel you have learned about South African literature, about modernism, or about any other topic so far on the course?

- Are you aware of areas of inquiry which you feel we have touched on, but would like to know much more about? If so, can you indicate what they are (perhaps these would have to do with particular authors, particular disciplines, or literary periods).

- Which texts have you enjoyed reading? Which texts have you not enjoyed?

- How do you feel about the format of the discussions either in class or on the blog? Do you have suggestions for improving these in any way?

- Any other thoughts or comments that you would like to note down at this point.   You may also have thoughts to share on the weekend away.


We will spend 10 minutes of classtime talking about your thoughts here, but you only need to share your reflections in written form with your classmate and not with me.

In other words, please try to be as frank as possible  :).

See you on Monday.

Lannie

A summary of Derek Attridge's "Ethical Modernism: Servants as Others in J.M. Coetzee’s Early Fiction"

In his article, Derek Attridge engages the ethical force of literature in J. M. Coetzee’s, Dusklands, and, In the Heart of the Country. Attridge argues that both novels engages the reader ethically, where the reader is encouraged to respond to an event or situation where. “otherness challenges habitual norms” (Attridge 653).  In this article Attridge focuses on two key ideas:

1.      How powerful modernist techniques can be used to involve the reader ethically, and;

2.      A discussion on how Coetzee undermines conventional discourses that are used to represent servants (which I interpreted as characters) in the same way he tests conventions of fictional representations.

Attridge explores these ideas in both of Coetzee’s novels and begins with his discussion of Dusklands.

 

Attridge’s emphasis on, Duslkands, is that it focuses on inviting the reader ethically into the novel and achieves this through the use of parody, specifically, a parody of an actual event. There is an emphasis the ‘event’, and how this ‘event’ is represented through discourse to shape social life. Dusklands, is split into two novellas, the first focusing on Eugene Dawn in, “The Vietnam Project”, and the second focusing on Jacobus Coetzee in, “The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee”, where each protagonist, according to Attridge, is given the ability to draw the reader in through their actions within, and reflections regarding, events. Attridge’s argument lies in the ‘event’ and how both of these characters, Eugene and Jacobus, are written with conventional fictional representations and are placed within the conventional discourses of 20^th century American imperialism and 18^th century Dutch colonialism, respectively. These are undermined, while also drawing the reader in ethically, when juxtaposed with the ‘other’ within each of the novellas. 

Attridge’s exploration into, In the Heart of the Country, is based on the techniques used by Coetzee and how narration is affected by these techniques and develops. By numbering the paragraphs in the novel, the reader is made aware of the language as a backdrop to human lives, thoughts and feelings. A technique like this is simple, yet effective in changing the effect of the narration and how narration is read. Attridge, explores how the narration is flawed and how these flaws shapes the narrative. According to Attridge, Coetzee also evokes a mental world that makes it easier for the reader to experience the, “mimetic power of narrative”, which allows the reader to sympathise with the feelings and thoughts of the imagined character. The exposure of the flaws in narration, coupled with this evocation of a mental world, allows for the sequence of events in the novel to develop in more than one direction through narrative backtracking. What Attridge means by this is that, one event is essentially developed into two or more separate events which holds the different perspectives, thoughts and feelings of the characters involved in the event.

While the article is difficult to grab a hold of, and grapples with complex ideas, it is interesting how Attridge unpacks how the ethical is represented and made effective in two of J. M. Coetzee’s earliest novels.

Works cited

Attridge, Derek. “Ethical Modernism: Servants as Others in J. M. Coetzee’s Early Fiction.” Poetics Today, 25:4 (2004): 553-671.

Review: Introduction to Black Hamlet – Jacqueline Rose

The mind of an African and the writings of a psychoanalyst.

Black Hamlet by Wulf Sachs is a book about the relationship between two men, Wulf Sach a psychoanalyst and John Chavafambira a Zimbabwean nganga (witch-doctor). Chavafambira moved to Johannesburg, South Africa in the late 1920's. Sachs was the first practicing psychoanalyst to come to South Africa and wrote about Chavafambira. The Johns Hopkins edition of Black Hamlet has two introductions, one by Saul Dubow and the other one by Jacqueline Rose. Dubow focuses his introduction on the historical, anthropological and political world of the book, where Rose has a more psychological focus.

I apologize in advance if I do not highlight every that Rose talks about. Black Hamlet is a rich text and it is not possible for me to mention everything. The narrative in terms of its “pull”, is seen “as engrossing as fiction” mentioned in the Evergreen edition and a reader can complete this compelling book one sitting (40). Rose says that Sachs' choice in choosing Shakespeare's Hamlet was “because of the remarkable narrative affinities between Hamlet's tale and Chavafambira's” (40).

Rose makes reference to the history of Shakespeare's play Hamlet and its similarities to Sachs Black Hamlet. Through this, Rose says we as readers can re-read Hamlet backwards – that is, the story can be identified as a form of “personhood bereft once outside its collectively or ancestrally sanctioned domain” (41).

Throughout her introduction, Rose refers to Freud and his work. Freud can be seen as the founder of psychoanalysis therapy. Rose relates Freud's work and studies to Black Hamlet and to what Sachs was probably doing at the time. Rose says that it is clear in Black Hamlet that the analyst, “fervently wishes for the patient's political emancipation, locks the patient into the imaginary world of his own demands” (44-45).

Maggie becomes an important person for Rose and she is mentioned along side Chavafambira. Maggie comes between the relationship of Chavafambira and Sachs. She becomes a warning for their relationship and is convinced that “no good will come of mixing black and white medicines” (Sachs 287). Rose mentions that in Black Hamlet, Sachs tries to diagnose the women in the book and “attempts a brief analysis of Maggie...these women are beyond the analytical pale” (63). Rose states that it is not that the women set a status of “truth” or that they set limits to what psychoanalysis can do in Africa but rather that psychoanalysis does not have the last word, physically or politically, in Africa (63). This can in the end be seen as the “fundamental principal of psychoanalysis” (64).

Rose has an easy to read style and is understandable. She simplifies the psychological aspect of the book by also showing the similarities between Sachs and Chavafambira. For me, the psychology of the book questions both Chavafambira as well as Sachs' story.

In as much as this is a story of John Chavafambira, Sachs “has made this his own” (39). This can be seen as a story of both the native and the colonial.

Work Cited

Sachs, Wulf. Black Hamlet. 1996 [1937]. Introduction by Jacqueline Rose. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1996. Print.