The article analyses the narcissistic nature of J.M. Coetzee’s novel “Life and Times of Michael K.”; the artistic whole in this novel is based upon the principles of metafiction. Emphasizing the peculiarities of Franz Kafka’s and Henry David Thoreau’s style, Coetzee integrates certain motives of their works into his narrative. The article focuses on the motif of wandering, which is borrowed by Coetzee from Thoreau’s book “Walden, or Life in the Woods”. While much has already been said about the significance of Kafka for Coetzee’s work, the significance of Thoreau remains almost unnoticed. The arti-cle provides evidence of Coetzee’s interest to the tradition of American transcendentalism and analyzes in detail the references to “Walden” in the novel, starting with the intention of the hero to retreat into nature. The article shows how the appeal to Thoreau’s book is superim-posed in this novel on Kafka’s type of plot. As a result, Coetzee enhances Thoreau’s tendency to overcome the dichotomy of soul and body.
For citation:
Polovinkina O.I., Bychkova K.I. J.M. Coetzee and H.D. Thoreau: the motif of wandering in the novel “Life and Times of Michael K.”, Ivanovo State Univer-sity Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2022, iss. 2, pp. 30—36.