자서전으로서의 J.M. 쿳시의 삼부작 『시골생활의 풍경』

This paper examines how J.M. Coetzee employs third-person present tense and fragmentation of structure as a strategy for reaching the ‘real’ truth in autobiography. First, the use of the third-person present tense in Boyhood and Youth allows the narrator to set his estranged self and then to more objectively confront the historical self. The distance derived from third-person present tense enables the narrator to avert self-deception and plays a pivotal role in revealing truthfulness by creating dialogue in the text. Second, fragmentation created by John’s journals and Vincent’s interviews in Summertime generates a decentralized cooperative relationship. This fragmentation subverting literary canon’s forms represents the identity of fragmented author whose belonging is not explicitly defined. For Coetzee “all autobiography is storytelling, all writing is autobiography”: not only is all writing based on one’s life, but also all autobiographical confession involves fictional elements. It is due to highly selective episodes for writing as well as incomplete recollection regarding the past. Thus, what is important in autobiographical writing is not a verifiable truth but “truth-directedness,” which is the reason Scenes from Provincial Life is defined as autobiography.