آفاق علمية
Volume 16, Numéro 1, Pages 1164-1177
2024-05-16

The Effects Of War And Its Implications In J.m Coetzee’s Life & Times Of Michael K And Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half Of A Yellow Sun

Authors : Babkar Abdelkader .

Abstract

This article attempts to explore the different profound layers of meanings related to the consequences and implications of war in Africa as depicted in J.M Coetzee’s Life & Times of Michael K and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of A Yellow Sun. Both works are found to have described the dire economic, psychological and political effects war can leave on both the individual, in the case of Michael K, and the community in the case of Ngozi’s work. The novels, however, differ tremendously in terms of their plots and the interactions between the characters inside them. Ngozi’s characters are more akin to how individuals in real life would act in the context of war or conflict; while Coetzee’s characters appear to be robotic and unearthly. Therefore, we can read Coetzee’s novel as an allegory and a work whose meanings are related to profound philosophical concerns such as the burdensome weight of freedom.

Keywords

Life & Times of Michael K ; Half of a Yellow Sun ; Coetzee ; Ngozi ; postcolonial ; Bakhtin ; war ; freedom