Discourse of Othering in J.M. Coetzee's Youth

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to illustrate how westerners exploit , dominate and misrepresent the non-westerners in the name of civilization, on the one hand, and how no westerners themselves misrepresent their own land, people and culture as inferior due to their colonized mentality on the other. The textYouthby J.M. Coetzee has been taken to conclude the finding mentioned above. An African boy, John inYouthMisrepresent the African people as the other to the Western discourse, power, and ideology. TheEuro-centric prejudices demonstrate the African native people as barbarians and legitimize African Language, culture, custom and lifestyle as inferior. The characters who are victimized by the Western ideology, fix the inferior identity of the Africans. Moreover, they represent the West as the centre and Africa as the Other. To conclude the colonized people cannot be free and from the grip of colonial mentality that regards Westerners as modern, civilized, superior, and non-Westerners as uncivilized, backward and barbaric Others. Coetzee's Novel reveals the institutionalized power exercised by Europeans over-non Europeans to rule them. The African people have been misrepresented in his novel, and thus, discourse of othering has been crated.