Miguel de Cervantes and J.M. Coetzee: An Unacknowledged Paternity

Abstract

This article points to the 17th-century Spanish writer, Miguel de Cervantes, as one important literary predecessor of the contemporary South African writer, J.M. Coetzee, a relation that has generally passed unnoticed among critics. This relation is brought to the foreground in Coetzee's most recent novel, The Childhood of Jesus (2013), but it also underlies his previous ones, Age of Iron (1998), Disgrace (2000), and Slow Man (2005), as well as his critical pieces, "The Novel Today" (1988) and the "Jerusalem Prize Acceptance Speech" (1992b), all of which contain echoes of Cervantes's masterpiece, Don Quixote ((1605, 1615)2005). My argument is that the conflict between imagination and reality, the novel and history, central in Coetzee's fictional and non-fictional production, needs to be re-examined as a fundamentally Cervantine one. The adventures and fate of Don Quixote lie behind Coetzee's exploration of whether literature may be an effective and ethical guide in our deal­ings with reality, whether the ordinary may be transformed into the extraordinary, and of the relation between the literary imagination and the onslaughts of the real world.

Opsomming
Hierdie artikel verwys na die 17de eeuse Spaanse skrywer, Miguel de Cervantes, as 'n belangrike letterkundige voorganger van die hedendaagse Suid-Afrikaanse skrywer, J.M. Coetzee, 'n verwantskap wat gewoonlik nie deur kritici opgemerk is nie. Hierdie verhouding is na vore gebring in Coetzee se mees onlangse roman, The Childhood of Jesus (2013), maar dit is ook onderliggend aan sy voriges, Age of Iron (1998), Disgrace (2000), en Slow Man (2005), en ook sy kritiese stukke, "The Novel Today" (1988) en • Jerusalem Prize Acceptance Speech" (1992b), waarvan alma! eggo's bevat van Cervantes se meesterstuk, Don Quiqote ((1605, 1615)2005). Ek voer aan dat die konflik tussen verbeelding en realiteit, die roman en geskiedenis, sentraal in Coetzee se fiktiewe en niefiktiewe werke, weer ondersoek moet word deur te kyk na hierdie konflik as in beginsel Cervantaans. Die avonture en lot van Don Quixote is die basis van Coetzee se ondersoek om te bepaal of sy literatuur effektiewe en etiese riglyne is in ons handelinge met die realiteit, of die gewone moontlik verander in die ongewone, en van die verhouding tussen die letterkundige verbeelding en die aanslae van die regte wereld.