From Colonial Authority to Subaltern Silence: Narrative Disruption in J.M. Coetzee’s Diary of a Bad Year

  • Unique Paper ID: 183527
  • PageNo: 2174-2178
  • Abstract:
  • The novel Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee features a distinctive narrative style that highlights the shift from dominant speech to fragmented, frequently muted voices by contrasting colonial power with postcolonial opposition. The study, "Dismantling the Authoritative Voice: Colonial and Postcolonial Perspectives in Diary of a Bad Year," examines how Coetzee challenges conventional forms of authority by combining the viewpoints of several characters, such as the elderly intellectual lead, his typist Anya, and her controlling partner Alan. Through an analysis of the novel's polyphonic structure, this study explores how postcolonial silence, subversion, and fragmented discourse confront the colonial voice historically dominant, assertive, and prescriptive. The study explores whether Coetzee challenges the survival of colonial ideology in a postcolonial environment through narrative disruption, metafictional devices, and moral quandaries. The book offers a microcosm of postcolonial struggle where resistance and silence reshape power relations through Anya's tentative but developing agency and Alan's neoliberal antithesis. Additionally, this study examines the moral ramifications of both speaking and remaining silent, raising the question of whether power is actually destroyed or only altered in the postcolonial era.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{183527,
        author = {G. Dhinesh kumaru and Dr. A. Vignesh Kumar},
        title = {From Colonial Authority to Subaltern Silence: Narrative Disruption in J.M. Coetzee’s Diary of a Bad Year},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {3},
        pages = {2174-2178},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=183527},
        abstract = {The novel Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee features a distinctive narrative style that highlights the shift from dominant speech to fragmented, frequently muted voices by contrasting colonial power with postcolonial opposition. The study, "Dismantling the Authoritative Voice: Colonial and Postcolonial Perspectives in Diary of a Bad Year," examines how Coetzee challenges conventional forms of authority by combining the viewpoints of several characters, such as the elderly intellectual lead, his typist Anya, and her controlling partner Alan. Through an analysis of the novel's polyphonic structure, this study explores how postcolonial silence, subversion, and fragmented discourse confront the colonial voice historically dominant, assertive, and prescriptive. The study explores whether Coetzee challenges the survival of colonial ideology in a postcolonial environment through narrative disruption, metafictional devices, and moral quandaries. The book offers a microcosm of postcolonial struggle where resistance and silence reshape power relations through Anya's tentative but developing agency and Alan's neoliberal antithesis. Additionally, this study examines the moral ramifications of both speaking and remaining silent, raising the question of whether power is actually destroyed or only altered in the postcolonial era.},
        keywords = {Authoritative voice, colonial discourse, Hegemonic narratives, subaltern resistance.},
        month = {August},
        }

Cite This Article

kumaru, G. D., & Kumar, D. A. V. (2025). From Colonial Authority to Subaltern Silence: Narrative Disruption in J.M. Coetzee’s Diary of a Bad Year. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT), 12(3), 2174–2178.

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