Cultural Trauma and Sociocultural Fragmentation in Coetzee’s Postcolonial Vision

Abstract

The forces of cultural trauma and sociocultural fragmentation as discussed in this paper are interrelated and influence the development of the postcolonial vision of J. M. Coetzee. In his novels Waiting for the Barbarians, Life and Times of Michael K., Age of Iron and Disgrace. Coetzee creates worlds of narrative in which violence is systemic, racial stratifications exist, political suppression and the residual traces of colonial and apartheid systems exist. His characters live in disturbed social spaces where identity, society and morality is shattered by long-term effects of historical domination. It is argued in the paper that Coetzee fiction is a representation of trauma but also challenges the morality of expressing the oppressed suffering. His intentional gaps, silence, narrative restraint, and minimalism predictions the impossibility of expressing some forms of historical pain. Cultural trauma in Coetzee becomes a group phenomenon, influencing the memory, embodiment, and interpersonal relationships whereas sociocultural fragmentation is manifested in the disruption of communal ties, the loss of common values, and the unpredictability of postcolonial identities. Finally, the work by Coetzee reveals the severe discontinuities that arise in societies due to colonialism and apartheid, but also tend to suggest that morally responsible and caring witnessing can pave some paths of restoration, even though small ones.