What does this research mean for the field?

J. M. Coetzee's fictionalized memoir Boyhood critiques the ahistorical nature of Martin Buber's dialogic theory by demonstrating how the hierarchical realities of apartheid South Africa obstruct the dialogic coconstruction of self and memory. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.NOVEL_FINDING. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.CHALLENGES_CONSENSUS.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To evaluate how J. M. Coetzee's fictionalized memoir Boyhood conceptualizes memory and selfhood through Martin Buber's dialogic framework in I and Thou.

September 14, 2026Critique Studies in Contemporary FictionOpen Access

I and Thou: Dialogic Life Narrative in J. M. Coetzee’s Boyhood

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Authors

KHKevin HartUniversity of Notre Dame

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Implication

Literary analysis reveals how memory operates as dialogic self-construction in Boyhood, demonstrating that apartheid hierarchies limit Martin Buber’s relational theory.

Key Points

To evaluate how J. M. Coetzee's fictionalized memoir Boyhood conceptualizes memory and selfhood through Martin Buber's dialogic framework in I and Thou.
Conducted a textual and philosophical analysis comparing Coetzee’s third-person, present-tense memoir ('autrebiography') with Buber’s I and Thou.
Examined the narrative mechanisms distinguishing dialogic memory from monologic memory.
Assessed the historical and political constraints imposed by apartheid South Africa on dialogic self-formation.
Characterized remembering in Boyhood as an interpretative, non-unitary dialogic process where the past self is constructed as another person.
Identified a major limitation in Buber's ahistorical model, showing that apartheid's rigid sociopolitical hierarchies actively obstruct dialogic engagement with others, memory, and personal narrative.

Cite This Study

Kevin Hart (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6aa7b3df0926e14a848b32bc https://doi.org/10.1080/00111619.2026.2730299

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Implication

Literary analysis reveals how memory operates as dialogic self-construction in Boyhood, demonstrating that apartheid hierarchies limit Martin Buber’s relational theory.

I and Thou: Dialogic Life Narrative in J. M. Coetzee’s Boyhood

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

I and Thou: Dialogic Life Narrative in J. M. Coetzee’s Boyhood

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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