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