Existential Other in J.M. Coetzee's Slow Man
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Department of English
Abstract
The experience of existential ‘other’ occurs because an individual does not
have access to freedom, which creates individual identity in relation to the world and
the self itself. This experience bears the concept of alienation from the social
circumstances and feeling of estrangement. It is evoked as alienation from nature,
alienation from others and alienation from the continuance of life. The protagonist of
Coetzee’sSlow Manfails to understand the world into which he is thrown. The world
is hostile to his interests and incomprehensible to the human faculties. Paulfeels
being ‘othered’ from society because of his crippled state and suffered from
unexpected outcomes. As a result, he does not obey societal rules and regulations and
feels that the world is shaped by death and everyone is a stranger for him. Moreover,
he is alienated from the self itself and from the life because he becomes aware of the
inevitability of death.