Spiritual and material dimensions of home in J. M.Coetzee’s Age of Iron

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyse the living conditions presented in J. M. Coetzee’s novel Age of Iron with reference to differences between the white and black communities of Cape Town in South Africa. It argues that differences in the conditions of living related to social and racial divisions are also reflected in the visions of the afterlife. The protagonist of the novel, Mrs Curren, portrays white people as living in comfort and dying in old age due to natural causes. The moment of their death constitutes a transition from earthly life to spiritual or incorporeal existence. In contrast, black people die young in apartheid fights. The dismal portrayal of the destruction of black people’s housing corresponds to Mrs Curren’s naturalistic descriptions of the dead bodies of young black activists. Their death does not involve a transformation into a spirit that has shed its body; death offers no relief, since their bodies and souls remain in “African hell”.