Identity and the colonized self
homophonic significance of the word ‘seed’ plays into Magda’s literal ‘severance’ of the lifeblood of the two oppressive structures in her life. Indeed, colonialism serves to preserve the patriarchy in its entirety. The subverted dynamic between Magda and Henrik, a black farmhand previously subservient to Magda and her father, establishes him as the dominant male figure of the land whilst also creating a dissonant racial undercurrent. Coetzee depicts a momentous inversion of ownership through their socio-economic transferral of power: where Magda previously owned Henrik’s labour, and thereby his body, he now owns her and is able to cultivate his ‘seed’. Eventually, the farm is reverse -colonized to the point of disuse; this ‘ dead centre of the stone desert ’ ( HC p.129) stands to represent the weathered, inhospitable host that is Magda’s body. In this way, Coetzee re -emphasize s Magda’s idea of her body (and womb) as a vulnerability. She envisions Henrik’s invasions with horrific luci dity, leading to her complete annihilation; ‘ that one day all his bony frame shall lie packed inside me, his skull inside my skull, his limbs along my limbs, the rest of him crammed into my belly. What will he leave me of myself? ’ Property and ownership in The Life and Times of Michael K , as seen through the prism of colonialism, is a multivalent issue that concerns language just as much as material possessions. The idea of the ‘colonial self’ is empirical; his microcosmic experiences inform his perception of the macrocosmic machine that oppresses him. The state is the purveyor of one’s individual identity : it is sold, bought and expended in a way that aims solely to perpetuate a hyper-capitalist economic system. Michael K aims to achieve independence; his m other’s farm in Prince Albert was seen as liberation from the metropolis. The notable recurrence in many of Coetzee’s post -colonial novels is the farm as a haven or recluse from urban life. This is where Michael K differs from Magda, as the rural is idolized as a form of escape, the opportunity to embrace anonymity as a ‘ shiftless creature ’ ( MK p.101); there is a uniformity, a verisimilitude within the heart of colonial enterprise that breeds in the city, but cannot take root in the nature of the countryside. ‘ All that was moving was time, bearing him onwards in its flow ’: i n Lockean fashion, Michael K resigns himself to an existence free from want, labour and vitally, time. Coetzee actualize s Michael K’s decoupling from the ‘colon ize d self’ at the point of his recapture and subsequent subjugation, his re-entry into the colonial grip finally giving Michael K a retrospective narrative clarity. Coetzee’s literature drills to the core of what I believe the ‘colon ize d self’ to represent , namely, an identity in relation to the state that is owned by the state. The intricacies of his characters bring out political and moral concepts that flourish on the page and ask harrowing questions of the reader. Most eloquently, there is the notion of grappling with an irreparable loss of the self at the hands of colonialism. Coetzee compels his audience to witness the seemingly insignificant and yet profound lives of the oppressed.
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