An Absent Presence: Intertextual Appropriation in Michael K by Nthikeng Mohlele

Summary

Taking as point of departure Frenkel’s notion of contemporary, post-transitional South African writing as palimpsestic, and Genette’s theory of inter-/hypertextuality in terms of palimpsest, the article examines Nthikeng Mohlele’s novel Michael K as an inter- textual appropriation of Coetzee’s Life & Time of Michael K. Employing theories of intertextuality from Kristeva to Genette, Riffaterre, Frow and Hutcheon, it shows how Coetzee’s novel, which is inscribed, in turn, as hypertext over earlier source texts, or hypotexts, by Kafka and Kleist, presents the problem of textual inscrutability and resistance to authority in the intractable figure of K Mohlele addresses this textual conundrum by appropriating K and giving him two afterlives in his own novel: first as fictional character, and secondly as metafictional subject. Mohlele’s reader is left with the final image of his eponymous Michael K as a figure who, like his fictional precursor(s), resists appropriation, escapes from authority, and whose presence is paradoxically predicated on absence.

Opsomming

Die artikel neem as uitgangspunte Frenkel se argument dat hedendaagse post- oorgangsfiksie in Suid-Afrika palimpsesties van aard is, en ook Genette se beskouing oor die palimpsestiese aard van inter/-hipertekstualiteit. Die artikel bespreek die intertekstuele toeëiening van Coetzee se Life & Times of Michael K deur Nthikeng Mohlele in sy roman Michael K deur gebruik te maak van die werk van inter- tekstualiteitsteoretici soos Kristeva, Genette, Riffaterre, Frow en Hutcheon. Daar word getoon hoe Coetzee se roman – wat op sy beurt weer as hiperteks geskryf is óór vroeëre hipotekste van Kafka en Kleist – die probleme van tekstuele onpeilbaarheid en weerstand teen outoriteit hanteer in die hardnekkige figuur van K Mohlele pak hierdie tekstuele raaisel aan deur K vir homself toe te eien en in sy eie roman te laat herleef as fiktiewe karakter, wat dan verder onderwerp word aan ’n metafiksionele diskoers. Die finale beeld van Mohlele se gelyknamige karakter waarmee die leser ge- laat word, is dié van ’n figuur wat, soos sy literêre vooganger(s), toeëieing weerstaan, van outoriteit ontsnap, en wie se teenwoordigheid paradoksaal op sy afwesigheid gebaseer is.