Abstract
This paper holds that J. M. Coetzee’s novel, Life and Times of Michael K, demonstrates how apartheid, in order to preserve its domination over the nonwhite population of South Africa, as with other authoritarian regimes, commonly encouraged dependency. Its various institutions and camps aimed precisely to create a culture of dependence and to fashion subjects utterly dependent on the state. A dependent subject is a powerless, exploitable, and controllable subject; this is the right kind of subject for colonizers. The black majority of South Africa, then, could only have a parasitic existence, completely dependent on their white masters. The novel narrates how dependence is created through the false generosity of the state. As Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed argued, false charity is a state strategy that serves to reproduce the relations of domination. Coetzee’s novel, thus, suggests that to undermine the structure of domination, the oppressed have to reject the culture of dependence and the parasitic subjectivity that arise from the false generosity of the state.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Victorian Mages: Robert Browning’s “Pietro of Abano” as a Critical Corollary to Alfred Tennyson’s Merlin
- Of ‘Household Gods’ and Devils: Fetishism in The Old Curiosity Shop
- More than an Artist in the Making: Samuel Beckett’s “Assumption” Revisited
- John Barth and David Foster Wallace: An Abortive Patricide
- False Generosity of the State: Parasitic Subjectivity in J. M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K
- Reviews
- Matti Peikola, Aleksi Mäkilähde, Hanna Salmi, Mari-Liisa Varila and Janne Skaffari (eds.). 2017. Verbal and Visual Communication in Early English Texts. Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy 37. Turnhout: Brepols, xii+280 pp., 30 illustr., 11 graphs, 9 tables, € 80.00.
- Brandon W. Hawk. 2018. Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England. Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series 30. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, xvii + 271 pp., 7 figures, $ 65.00.
- Thorlac Turville-Petre. 2018. Description and Narrative in Middle English Alliterative Poetry. Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, viii + 222 pp., £ 85.00.
- Susanna Fein (ed.). 2016. The Auchinleck Manuscript: New Perspectives. Manuscript Culture in the British Isles. York: York Medieval Press/Woodbridge: Boydell, xi + 253 pp., 6 figures, £ 60.00 (hb)/£ 25.00 (pb).
- Omar Khalaf (ed.). 2017. Alexander and Dindimus. Edited from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264. Middle English Texts 55. Heidelberg: Winter, liv + 80 pp., 8 plates, 2 tables, € 44.00.
- Traugott Lawler. 2018. The Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman. Volume 4: C Passūs 15–19; B Passūs 13–17. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, xv + 499 pp., $ 89.95/£ 69.00.
- Martina Bross. 2017. Versions of Hamlet: Poetic Economy on Page and Stage. Beiträge zur Englischen und Amerikanischen Literatur 35. Paderborn: Schöningh, 354 pp., € 59.00.
- Kathrin Tordasi. 2018. Women by the Waterfront: Modernist (Re)Visions of Gender, Self and Littoral Space. Epistemata: Würzburger Wissenschaftliche Studien – Reihe Literaturwissenschaft 890. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 348 pp., 7 illustr., € 48.00.
- John Kinsella and Russell West-Pavlov. 2018. Temporariness: On the Imperatives of Place. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 372 pp., 37 illustr., € 69.90.
- Colin Wells. 2018. Poetry Wars: Verse and Politics in the American Revolution and Early Republic. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 342 pp, $ 55.00/£ 44.00.
- Christoph Lanzen. 2018. Physicians of Culture: Healing Catharsis in the Fiction of Toni Morrison and the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Heidelberg: Winter, 172 pp., € 35.00.
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Victorian Mages: Robert Browning’s “Pietro of Abano” as a Critical Corollary to Alfred Tennyson’s Merlin
- Of ‘Household Gods’ and Devils: Fetishism in The Old Curiosity Shop
- More than an Artist in the Making: Samuel Beckett’s “Assumption” Revisited
- John Barth and David Foster Wallace: An Abortive Patricide
- False Generosity of the State: Parasitic Subjectivity in J. M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K
- Reviews
- Matti Peikola, Aleksi Mäkilähde, Hanna Salmi, Mari-Liisa Varila and Janne Skaffari (eds.). 2017. Verbal and Visual Communication in Early English Texts. Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy 37. Turnhout: Brepols, xii+280 pp., 30 illustr., 11 graphs, 9 tables, € 80.00.
- Brandon W. Hawk. 2018. Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England. Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series 30. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, xvii + 271 pp., 7 figures, $ 65.00.
- Thorlac Turville-Petre. 2018. Description and Narrative in Middle English Alliterative Poetry. Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, viii + 222 pp., £ 85.00.
- Susanna Fein (ed.). 2016. The Auchinleck Manuscript: New Perspectives. Manuscript Culture in the British Isles. York: York Medieval Press/Woodbridge: Boydell, xi + 253 pp., 6 figures, £ 60.00 (hb)/£ 25.00 (pb).
- Omar Khalaf (ed.). 2017. Alexander and Dindimus. Edited from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264. Middle English Texts 55. Heidelberg: Winter, liv + 80 pp., 8 plates, 2 tables, € 44.00.
- Traugott Lawler. 2018. The Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman. Volume 4: C Passūs 15–19; B Passūs 13–17. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, xv + 499 pp., $ 89.95/£ 69.00.
- Martina Bross. 2017. Versions of Hamlet: Poetic Economy on Page and Stage. Beiträge zur Englischen und Amerikanischen Literatur 35. Paderborn: Schöningh, 354 pp., € 59.00.
- Kathrin Tordasi. 2018. Women by the Waterfront: Modernist (Re)Visions of Gender, Self and Littoral Space. Epistemata: Würzburger Wissenschaftliche Studien – Reihe Literaturwissenschaft 890. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 348 pp., 7 illustr., € 48.00.
- John Kinsella and Russell West-Pavlov. 2018. Temporariness: On the Imperatives of Place. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 372 pp., 37 illustr., € 69.90.
- Colin Wells. 2018. Poetry Wars: Verse and Politics in the American Revolution and Early Republic. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 342 pp, $ 55.00/£ 44.00.
- Christoph Lanzen. 2018. Physicians of Culture: Healing Catharsis in the Fiction of Toni Morrison and the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Heidelberg: Winter, 172 pp., € 35.00.