The Outsider and the ‘Other’ in Life & Times of Michael K A Postcolonial Reading

This essay attempts to show the outsider and the other and discusses the roles of the outsider and the ‘other’ in the novel Life & Times of Michael K, published in 1983,by J.M. Coetzee through a postcolonial reading with perspectives borrowed from narrative analysis.. The protagonist Michael K is an ‘other’ in the eyes of the other characters in the novel. In addition to being the outsider and the ‘other’, and thereby deprived of power, Michael K transforms himself into an outsider. This essay claims that by being the outsider the protagonist Michael K becomes empowered.

Keywords:

Michael K , outsider , ‘other’ , postcolonialism , narrative identity , power