Paper Infomation
Psychology or Culture: An Interpretation of Simon’s Identity Crisis in J.M. Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus
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Author: Guofang Song
Abstract: “Citizenship” as a concept was put forward by scholars, once city-states emerged in ancient Greece. Following Aristotle and Plato, many other scholars and thinkers made their contributions to this concept by expounding, analyzing and further developing it. However, it did not turn into a systematical discourse until Marshall. Marshall’s perception therefore, served as a starting point and a model for a number of scholars thereafter. According to Marshal, citizenship can be understood in three dimensions, covering political right, social right and civic right. Without any doubt, Marshall’s notion of citizenship focuses on rights, leaving a citizen’s obligation untouched, for which Marshall was criticized and attacked by scholars. However due to limitation of space, this issue is not to be further discussed. Besides, as a result of emigrants from one country to another, citizenship as a concept more concerned with national boundary gets more complex and vaguer. Under this backdrop, a number of scholars and researchers proposed the fourth dimension, it is suggested that besides the 3 above mentioned rights, a fourth right should be added, which is culture right. Based on the notion and theories of culture rights and theories regarding the difficulty and dilemma confronted by emigrants, whether they immigrate out of their own wish or being forced to, the author aims to analyze Simon-a character in Coetzee’s (himself an emigrant from South Africa to Australia) novel The Childhood of Jesus (2013) and his cultural identity dilemma. Following from this analysis, the conclusion on the unlikeliness or feasibility of culture citizenship then is to be made.
Keywords: Culture Citizenship, Identity Crisis, Feasibility
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