Terror and Trauma in J.M. Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello

Abstract

The present thesis undertakes the study of terror and trauma in J. M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello. The main theme of this text is Holocaust. Coetzee expresses the situation of 1944 where conspirators were hanged by Hitler. He also presents the situation of Treblinka, Rome and Berlin where Nazi workers have killed Jews, they were treated as animal. The principal character Elizabeth Costello fells trouble about the situation of animal in farm industry because of that the slaughter houses are transforming into Holocaust. She also upsets to the literary writer Paul West and his creative style, this is the reason why the obscene words and extreme highlight about the traumatic situation of Nazi holocaust is created in his novel The Very Rich Hour of Count von Stauffenberg. So Coetzee shows that the literary writers give pain and torture to their readers by their literary creation.