Resistance for Freedom in J. M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K

Abstract

J. M. Coetzee's novel Life and Times of Michael K lucidly manifests the impact of colonial imposition upon an individual and the latter continuous struggle to free oneself from the tangle web of colonialism in order to get freedom. Michael K does never relent his confidence during the hard struggle against colonial agents and its system for freedom. In the background of civil strife due to apartheid in South Africa, the novel Life and Times of Michael K depicts the hostile socio-economic, political and cultural crisis in which Michael K is embroiled in the turmoil of restriction and confinement in the camps. But he protests against all these things non-violently to attain freedom. Michael K never indulges in violent actions to fight against the colonial imposition, but he raises the more powerful weapons like disobedience, non-violently so as to attain freedom. Michael K never indulges in violent actions to fight against the colonial imposition, but he raises the more powerful weapons like disobedience, non-cooperation, fasting and truth. Despite excessive torment Michael K never refrains from his journey to achieve freedom. He takes non-violent protest as a supreme weapon to cut every thread of the colonial web that encroach the freedom of individuals. This research makes a significant theoretical connection between post colonial critiques of postcolonial literature and resistance literature in order to show Michael K's non-violent resistance for freedom. The present researcher is going to find out voices of the suppressed in J. M. Coetzee's novel Life and Times of Michael K using post colonialism as a theoretical methodology.