Dusklands - Oct BOTM

[Diane]

Review thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Diane]

Questions for "The Vietnam Project"

1. What is the function of the propaganda detailed in the "Vietnam Project"? How does it relate to the power dynamics Coetzee often explores?

2. Who is the narrator, and what are their motivations in investigating this project? What are the limitations of their perspective?

3. How does this novella function as a story about the act of storytelling itself? What does it reveal about the relationship between narrative and manipulation?

Questions for "The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee"

4. What does Jacobus's narrative reveal about the nature of colonialism in South Africa? How does his own identity become entangled with the colonizers' perspective?

5. How does Coetzee portray the South African landscape and its inhabitants? What is the significance of the "powerful and the powerless" in this novella?

6. To what extent is Jacobus's narrative a confession? What does it mean to tell his story, and what are the implications of his self-analysis or lack thereof?

General Questions for Dusklands

7. What is the relationship between "The Vietnam Project" and "The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee"? Do they offer different lenses through which to view similar themes of power and conflict?

8. Both novellas feature distinct narrative voices. What makes these narrators unreliable? How does their unreliability shape the reader's understanding of the events?

9. How does Dusklands fit within the literary tradition of other colonizing narratives, such as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness?

10. Considering J.M. Coetzee's broader work and his criticisms, what deeper critiques of society, power, or storytelling might he be making with Dusklands?