Peoples & Cultures - Biography, Literary Biography, Africana - Africa

Infancia/Boyhood

Name: Infancia/Boyhood
Author: J. M. Coetzee
ISBN: 9788439705437

by J. M. Coetzee

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Overview

"El joven de Infancia creció en el norte desarrollado de Ciudad del Cabo, atormentado por la culpa y el miedo. Con un padre por quien no sentía ningún respeto y una madre a quien adoraba y deseaba a la vez, llevaba una doble vida; en la escuela era un estudiante modelo, brillante y bien educado mientras en casa era un pequeño déspota, siempre acongojado por la posibilidad de perder el amor de su madre. Sus primeros encuentros con la literatura, el despertar de la sexualidad y una creciente forma de conciencia del fenómeno del apartheid lo llevaron a plantarse cuestiones espinosas y desconcertantes, y sólo en su amor por los veld ("las granjas son lugares de libertad, de vida") logró encontrar un sentimiento arraigado."

English Translation: The young person of Childhood grew in the developed north of City of the Cabo, tormented by the fault and the fear. With a father by whom any respect did not feel and a mother to that adored and wished simultaneously, he took one double life; in the school she was a student model, well educated brilliant and while in house he was small tyrant, always distressed by the possibility of losing the love of his mother. His first encounter with Literature, waking up of the sexuality and an increasing form of conscience of the phenomenon of the apartheid took it to stand thorny and amazing questions, and only in his love by veld (" the farms are freedom places, of life ") it managed to find a feeling rooted.

Synopsis

Tiene diez años. Vive en Worcester, una pequeña localidad al norte de Ciudad del Cabo, con una madre a la que adora y detesta a la vez, un hermano menor y un padre por quien no siente respeto alguno. Lleva una doble vida: en el colegio es el alumno modélico, el primero de la clase; en casa, un pequeño déspota. Los secretos, los engaños y los miedos le atormentan; el amor por la granja familiar y por el veld, las desnudas mesetas sudafricanas, le arraigan a la tierra. J. M. Coetzee vuelca todas sus dotes de narrador sobrio, mesurado y elegante en este relato lleno de fuerza, en el que evoca su infancia a comienzos de los años cincuenta; escenas de una vida de provincias donde la inocencia en su estado más puro y la violencia soterrada forman parte, tanto de la propia historia como de la de Sudáfrica.

About the Author, J. M. Coetzee

J.M. Coetzee

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature to South African novelist J. M. Coetzee, a towering literary talent “who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider.” The Academy cited the astonishing wealth of variety in Coetzee’s stories, many of which are set against the backdrop of apartheid.

Biography

John Maxwell Coetzee was born in 1940 in Cape Town, South Africa. He is of both Boer and English descent. His parents sent him to an English school, and he grew up using English as his first language.

At the beginning of the 1960s he moved to England, where he worked initially as a computer programmer. He studied literature in the United States and has gone on to teach at several American universities, the University of Cape Town, and the University of Adelaide.

Coetzee made his debut as a writer of fiction in 1974. His first book, Dusklands was published in South Africa. His international breakthrough came in 1980 with the novel Waiting for the Barbarian. In 1983 he won the Booker Prize in the United Kingdom for Life and Times of Michael K. In 1999, he became the first author to be twice awarded the Booker Prize, this time for his novel, Disgrace. In 2003, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. The Academy cited the astonishing wealth of variety in Coetzee's stories, many of which are set against the backdrop of apartheid.

In addition to his novels, Coetzee has written numerous essays and interviews. His literary criticism has been published in journals and collected into anthologies.

Good To Know

Described by friends as a reclusive and private man, Coetzee did not make the trip to London in 1984 to receive the Booker Prize for Life and Times of Michael K, nor when he again won the prize for Disgrace in 1999.

His 1977 novel, In the Heart of the Country, was filmed as the motion picture Dust in 1985.

Coetzee has also been active as a translator of Dutch and Afrikaans literature.

In 2002, Coetzee emigrated to Australia.