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.