MEMORANDUM: Autobiographies that break the rules –
Boyhood by J.M. Coetzee
Aim: To broaden understanding of the conventions of autobiography (See book: p. 182)
Type: Pair or group discussion; individual written work Grade level: 10, 11
Time: 20–30minutes File section: Non-fiction
Instruction: Work in pairs.
1 List all the common characteristics of autobiography, such as how narrative voice and tense are used.
2 Now read the extract below and then answer the questions that follow. The questions will help you identify the ways in which this autobiography breaks the rules; how it experiments with style and convention.
extract from Boyhood by J.M. Coetzee
1 He shares nothing with his mother. His life at school is kept a tight secret from her.
She shall know nothing, he resolves, but what appears on his quarterly report, which
shall be impeccable. He will always come first in class. His conduct will always be
Very Good, his progress Excellent. As long as the report is faultless, she will have no
5 right to ask questions. That is the contract he establishes in his mind.
What happens at school is that boys are flogged. It happens every day. Boys are
ordered to bend over and touch their toes and are flogged with a cane.
Questions
1 What tense does Coetzee use? Why?
Coetzee uses the present tenseP. This creates a sense of immediacy: the reader is plunged directly into the boy’s experience and point of viewP. [2]
2.1 What kind of narrator does Coetzee use? Provide an example.
Coetzee uses a third person narratorP, as we see in the following example: “He shares nothing with his mother.”P (2)
2.2 How is the narrator different from what you would expect in an autobiography?
Coetzee’s third person narrator (“he”) is atypical of autobiographical writing, which is usually narrated by a first person narrator (“I”)P. The tone of the third person narrative voice is also detached, unemotional and analyticalP, in contrast with the first person narrative voice found in most autobiographies, which generally use an intimate and highly subjective point of view and toneP to engage the reader’s emotions. (3)
2.3 Suggest a reason why the author uses this unusual narrative voice.
The use of the third person narrative voice breaks with convention to delineate clearly between the adult who remembers the past, and the child whose experiences are being rememberedP. This strategy invites the reader to reflect on the boy’s experiences in a more objective, analytical fashionP. [Sometimes this distancing technique is called defamiliarisation.] Coetzee surprises and challenges us by refusing to blur the boundaries between child and adultP. (3)
2.4 Is the narrator the same person as the boy in the text? How do youknow?
The writer’s choice of a third person narrator emphasizes the idea that the adult narrator is a very different person to the child he once wasP. The third person voice – which is dispassionate, detached, and emotionally undemonstrative – suggests a distance or gap between the child and the adultP.
The child is the one who directly experiences the encounter with his mother, does well at school, and fears being floggedP. The adult narrator is the one who writes about, reflects on and remembers these incidents and experiences from the pastP: in this sense, the narrator is not the same person as his boyhood self. (4) [12]
Total marks: 14
© Oxford University Press Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd 2013. From Oxford Practical Teaching English Literature: How to teach Grades 8–12. You may modify, print and photocopy this document solely for use in your classes.
Extract from Boyhood, Scenes from Provincial Life by J.M. Coetzee, Vintage, 1998, p.5. Copyright © J.M. Coetzee. Reprinted by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd., Literary, film and TV agents.