In the Heart of the Country

                The complexity of the J.M. Coetzee’s In the Heart of the Country is not only apparent through the characters that bind the story together, but also through the structure, language and elements of fiction and reality. When analyzing the structure of the novel, it is important to consider not only the way in which it is separated into numbered sections, the point of view of the narrator, but most importantly, the constant shifts in binary perspectives. These all contribute to Coetzee’s modernistic and  intricate literary approach.

                The novel is separated into 266 different sections, all of which detail a specific scene in Magda, the main character’s, life. As Derek Attridge explains in his article, the numbering of the sections indicate, “we are not to suspend disbelief as we read, that our encounter with human lives, thoughts and feelings is to take place against the background of a constant awareness of their mediation by language, generic and other conventions, and artistic decisions” (663). The reader must recognize the humanistic manner of the events that occur and place focus on the way they are introduced into the novel, moving from a set of events to a realistic literary narrative. Magda narrates the events in her life in a linear manner. Though we become aware of this linear structure and can highlights the chronological events that occur, it is without a doubt that there are missing gaps that are left unanswered. This brings the reader closer to the story, as the reader becomes a witness in Magda’s struggle to feel wanted and loved while simultaneously piecing together the puzzle pieces that formulate the “solitary spinster” she is described to be.

This brings us back to the narrative anomalies structured by the constant shift in the voice of Magda. The narrator, Magda shifts time after time from the first to the third person. The reader becomes entangled in a first person narrative−third person focalizer paradigm, one that provides dualistic points of view. The first person narrator allows for the narration of the events as they occur. The third person focalizer brings the reader into Magda’s consciousness and makes the reader aware of her thoughts and emotions as she narrates the story. On section 13, for instance, Magda states, “The Angel, that is how she is sometimes known, The Angel in black who comes to save the children of the brown folk from their coups and fevers…She needs to be needed. With no one to need her, she is baffled and bewildered” (Coetzee 5). Magna never really identifies herself as the “Dark Angel” she is speaking of, but little clues such as the idea that the “Angel” needs to be needed can clue the reader into assuming that she is speaking about herself. Also, the only other woman that has been presented at this point in the story is the woman Magda’s father brings home. Magda, however, does not know enough to identify this woman as an Angel. Though we are not told directly, we can assume that these are part of her unconscious thoughts and emotions that are circulating in Magda’s mind. The reader thus becomes a literary surgeon who must attempt to extract pieces of information from Magda’s  desolate mind.