Boyhood | Boyhood

At a glance:

Author: J. M. Coetzee
First Published: 1997
Type of Work: Autobiography
Time of Work: post-World War II
Setting: Worcester and Cape Town, South Africa
Principal Characters: J. M. Coetzee, Mr. Coetzee, Mrs. Coetzee, Aunt Annie
Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography
Subjects: Language or languages, Parents and children, Adolescence, Colonialism, Sex or sexuality, Self, Authors or writers, Prejudices or antipathies, Religion, Violence, South Africa or South Africans, Apartheid
Locales: Cape Town, South Africa, Worcester, South Africa

In his Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life, J. M. Coetzee provides his readers with his own portrait of the artist as a young man. Like James Joyce, Coetzee depicts himself as a boy trying to find himself, to adjust to his society, to come to terms with his parents, and to lay the groundwork for his future career as a writer and an academic. The book focuses on Coetzee’s life from the age of ten to thirteen, formative years marked by an awakening sexuality, a love-hate relationship with his smothering mother, a fascination with literature, and a sense of his alienation and...

Boyhood | Boyhood

At a glance:

Join eNotes