C., D. N., outsiders and contemporary issues

[Bekah]

I bring up the issue of outsiders in Coetzee now because of the solid  
introduction of Nechaev.   Coetzee has  often written about  
"outsiders"  caught up in times of crisis  -  Life and Times of  
Michael K is about a young man,  possibly retarded,  and takes place  
in a possibly futuristic war zone.   Age of Iron is about a white  
female cancer victim in  South Africa just before the end of  
apartheid.  Disgrace is about a misogynist professor, his raped  
daughter and the extremely tense times just after apartheid.     
Waiting for the Barbarians is about a military man in times of war  
and torture - he's an outsider because of his beliefs and the way he  
acts on them.   Elizabeth Costello seems to be an outsider by virtue  
of her trade and she certainly tries to be an outsider in Slow Man -  
(heh).   Coetzee sometimes equates outsider and everyman.

In TMoP Coetzee's Dostoevsky  is distinctly an outsider in St.  
Petersburg because he's been away for a few years and he's certainly  
in a different circle from the one he left.  He's the outsider in his  
son's life,  in the world of the terrorists.  He won't even contact  
his old friend Maykov (next chapter?).
*
The responsibility of an author to contemporary issues is another  
regular theme of Coetzee:    Dusklands dealt with Vietnam (and he was  
denied extended American residency, in part, for that one - http:// 
www.bookforum.com/inprint/014_04/1385  ).     In the Heart of the  
Country - racial issues and relationships of South Africa,   Life and  
Times of Michael K -  war,  Age of Iron - apartheid,  and so on and  
it's even more apparent in his recent books.  On the surface it seems  
like St. Petersburg is less oriented toward contemporary issues ( of  
course, terrorism was an issue in Africa in 1994 ) but toward the end  
the responsibility of an author to contemporary issues is very much a  
part of the plot and theme. (no spoilers but it's there - I'll point  
it out if it's missed.)

  Dostoevsky also directly addressed the ideas of the times in his  
novels.  Dostoevsky was censored,  Coetzee was criticized.   Coetzee  
felt a kinship to Dostoevsky because of the bonds of society places  
on an author  -  Dostoevsky was censored,  Coetzee was heavily  
criticized and felt he was oppressed by the confines of history.   
Coetzee hits on literary theory (as we've noted).  Dostoevsky didn't  
do that so much - he was more interested in presenting his ideas  
about how ideas of religion and agnosticism (intellectualism,   
sensualism,  spirituality, etc.)  had consequences in life.

  I think Coetzee may have had an ethical problem with  exploiting  
historical figures (Dostoevsky,  his own son)  and began to focus on  
examining himself.   That said,  he continues to write about issues  
which concern him in his own life - first it was the apartheid in  
South Africa (Disgrace),  then it was the death of his son (TMoP),  
and more lately it's been animal rights, the dimensions of authorial  
control, age  (Elizabeth Costello and Slow Man) and current world  
events (Diary of a Bad Year).    Good piece:  http:// 
www.bookforum.com/inprint/014_04/1385

But Dostoevsky had no such issues and took on the nihilists head-on  
about their atheist ideas (rebellion against God, actually - like  
Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov,  Stavrogin, Peter and others in  
Demons)  and the consequences of such ideas.   Coetzee is no  
conservative or orthodox anything,  but he abhors revolution - or  
violence in any form -  I think this can be seen in all his novels.

Bekah