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ORKS:

the Theory of Relativity

of Dialectics

Chall/a/nging

Presented by: Kristina Yegoryan

J.M.Coetzee

J. Derrida

A. Einstein

BIOGRAPHY SCHOOLING

O born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1940

O mother: a primary school teacher

O father: trained as an attorney

O University of Cape Town in 1957, graduated successively with honors degrees in English and mathematics

O Graduate school of the University of Texas at Austin

O In 1968 graduated with a PhD in English, linguistics, and Germanic languages

O Doctoral dissertation was on the early fiction of Samuel Beckett

NOBLE PRIZE IN LITERATURE

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2003 was awarded to

J. M. Coetzee "who in innumerable guises portrays

the surprising involvement of the outsider"(NoblePrize org)

COETZEES WORKS

Dusklands (1974)- first book published in South Africa in 1974.

In the Heart of the Country (1977)-won South Africa's principal literary award, the CAN Prize and

was published in Britain and the USA.

Waiting for the Barbarians (1980)- received international notice.

Life & Times of Michael K (1983)- won Britain's Booker Prize.

Disgrace (1999)- won the Booker Prize.

The Tradition of Linguistics has set up a hierarchy of binary oppositions.

Binaries have been assigned specific roles in our lexicon, and we are already “plugged into a system that has already programmed us with a set of values [which] we imaginatively believe to be our own and use to mediate our judgment on anything we perceive to have any sort of moral value” (Arakelian).

DIALECTICS CONSTITUTE THE

NOTIONS OF AUTHORITY AND INFERIORITY

Time is relative

to each person

DEPENDING

on his motion

relative to

others.

The meanings of dialectics

can be different for each

person

DEPENDING

on his/her relation to others .

Shattering Age-Old Ideas

DECONSTRUCTING / DISPLACING DIFFER/A/

NCE

Deferral- the meaning of words and signs is defined through appeal to additional words, from which they differ.

Difference -differentiates elements from one another and thus engenders binary oppositions and hierarchies that underpin meaning itself.

J. Derrida

DECONSTRUCTING / DISPLACINGThe Tradition of Linguistics has set up a hierarchy of binary oppositions and the meanings of dialectics is predetermined, BUT by displacing them, we can subvert hierarchal, reputed binaries, temper their pre-assigned meanings, and see new ideas, new meanings that have been beyond the zone of our expectations.

CHALL /A/ NGING

J.M. Coetzee

“Deconstructing binaries

and understanding how they work doesn’t eliminate them

but uncovers how they’re used as a means of gaining

power” (Eve Sedgwick).

“Concepts that have been oppressed by the dominant ones also have power, which is not visible on the surface but becomes visible once deconstructed”

(Sedgwick).

* DIALECTICS : WHO GOT THE POWER?

• 1. Narrator’s voice / silent discourse

• “Who does the writing, who seizes power by taking pen in hand? Can black experience be depicted by a white person?” (Wastberg).

VOICE/SILENCE

”I tend to resist invitations to interpret my own fiction”.

J. M. Coetzee

2. Gendered voice/ Subjectivity

Phallocentric feminine voice / audible silence

VOICE/SILENCE

“Silence is a sounding thing, to one who listens hungrily”

~Gwendolyn Bennett

• 3. Authorship

VOICE/SILENCE Nothing strengthens authority so

much as silence.Leonardo da Vinci

The wisest have the most authority.Plato

AUTHORSHIP-different accounts of the reading experience

“Men readers approximate maleness with humanity”

“Women read with immasculation”

Patricinio Schweickart

AUTHORSHIP

Reader/ Writer New Criticism- rejection of readers’ feelings and author’s intention_________________ “Readers can, do, and

should interpret texts without privileging authors’ (imagined) intentions”

~ Ian Barnard

REOCURRENCE OF THE CHARACTER

A Literary Term: Archetype- a timelesssymbol________________

Elizabeth Costello

(Lives of Animals , Slow Man,

Elizabeth Costello)

Foe, Robinson Cruso(e) ,

and Friday

 (Foe)

OLD/NEW ORDER DISPLACEMENT, REPLACEMENT, AND CHANGEDisplacement and

replacement: Elizabeth Costello for Paul as the new order replaces the old in life.

FOE- Displacement of time and the past is replaced with the new.

Disgrace – Status change and displacements of power relations (professor/student, white/black)

Slow Man - change in personal life

Waiting for Barbarians – Displacement of status and life change

In the Heart of the Country- change in power, status, and in personal life

SELF

/OTH

ER

“ Self is a linguistic construct and

subjective agency is an effect of language”

Lacan

O “Coetzee uses Costello as a possible stand-in for himself, but then has Costello create other characters such as Paul Rayment … causing a fracturing of or a multidimensional representation of his identity.” Wastberg

Search for Self/Other

SEARCH FOR SELF and DESIRE FOR OTHER

Mirror Stage- J. LacanForm of totalityPerception of selfOrigins of ‘ideal ego’ - - - - - - - - - - - - - Alienation Being fractured and divided Estranged body Fragmentation of Desires-search for self

SELF-OtHER

IN :

• Slow Man• In the Heart of Country• Foe 

The sense of self is only ever garnered from identifying with the images of these others (or itself in the mirror, as a kind of other)

Lacan  

J.M. COETZEE

Coetzee reemphasizes the theory of relativity and through displacement shows the relativity of meaning of each signifier in the binary set.

Displacing time, different scenes, themes, retelling the past with a new look, Coetzee suggests to reconsider the meanings and values of dialectics to be able to understand the problems that have been embedded in the social epitome of our past and present and thus approach them with a new perspective, a new approach.

 

WORKS CITED Arakelian. Geghard. “Can we call it a popularity contest?” csunmoodle. 26 Feb. 2011 Web. 2 April 2012. Barnard, Ian. “Authorial Intent in the Composition Classroom” from Composition Forum 24 (Fall 2011). Copyright 2011. Web. 2 April 2012. Derrida, Jacques. “Difference.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed Julie Rivkin, Michael Ryan 2nd ed. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 278- 300.   “Jacques Lacan.” Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A peer-Reviewed Academic Resource. Web. 2 April 2012 “J.M. Coetzee-Bibliography.” NoblePrize.org. Web. 9 April 2012. “J.M. Coetzee Quotes.” GoodReads Author Quotes. Web. 2 April 2012. Knox, Jeremy. “The Avatar in the Mirror: A Lacanian analysis of the virtual world self.” Education e-learning. Web. 2 April 2012 “Quotes.” Brainy Quotes. Web. 4 April 2012. Schweikart. Patricinio. “ Reading Ourselves: Toward A Feminist Theory of Reading.” Lecture Notes. 13 Nov 2009. Richard Clarke. LITS3303- 11B. Web 14 Nov. 2012. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. “Between Men.” English literature and male homosocial desire. Web. 4 April. 2012. Wastberg, Writer Per. “Presentation Speech for 2003 Noble Prize in Literature at Stockholm.” Noble Web 2003. Web. 2 April 2012.

A SKEW

ED L

OOK A

T J.

M.

COET

ZEE’

S W

ORKS:

the Theory of Relativity

of Dialectics

Chall/a/nging

Presented by: Kristina Yegoryan

J.M.Coetzee

J. Derrida

A. Einstein