K’s Silent Defiance in Life & Time of Michael K from the Perspective of Kant’s Conception of Freedom

The book Life & Time of Michael K is Coetzee’s great work, and won the Booker Prize. Life & Time of Michael K describes Michael K’s miserable fate in South Africa amid a civil war, but he faces suffering bravely through his silent defiance. Most studies, however, have focused on K’s silent defiance from postcolonial theory, Sartre’s existentialism, and Foucault’s theories of discipline and punishment, which overlooks the philosophical value of K’s silent defiance. To address this gap, this paper, under the guidance of Kant’s philosophical concept of freedom, explores how K makes silent defiance. A conclusion is reached that K gains freedom in a turbulent society through silent defiance from three aspects: making escape choices, keeping away from interpersonal relationships, and obtaining solace in nature.