Facticity, appropriation and destiny. J. M. Coetzee's Boyhood under the gaze of Heidegger's existential analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to propose a dialogue between the autobiographical novel Boyhood of the South African author J. M. Coetzee, and the existential transformation of Heidegger's Dasein, as it is analyzed and interpreted in Being and Time. To do this, we develop a hermeneutical process of speculating character, by which we articulate the meaning of the literary work with the formal account of the existence of Dasein in Heidegger's Being and Time. Through this dialogue we will examine how they discuss, problematize and explain one another, making use of some key concepts of existential analysis as ``affectedness'', ``Understanding'' and ``Thrownness''.