A Journey of Salvation and Redemption through Displacement: A Psychoanalytic Reading of J. M. Coetzee's Age of Iron

Defense mechanisms are coping techniques that people unconsciously employ to avoid the tension arising toward a certain situation, person, idea or any object. Displacement is one common defense mechanism that unconsciously operates in the mind to turn the negative feelings toward a certain target to acceptable ones. J.M.Coetzee adopts the psychoanalytical approach in portraying the character of Elizabeth Curren to convey his own contempt toward Apartheid in South Africa taking Displacement as a means of coexistence with the situation in which she finds herself. Coetzee gives an example of a white character who is not in line with the oppressive Apartheid. Because of her inability to openly express her negative feelings toward the regime, she finds in writing a letter to her daughter a means to adapt to her situation. In doing so, she finds in her relationship with the Blacks in her community the substance of her confessional writing. In a word, the present study aims to underscore the importance of defense mechanisms as coping techniques to make their life meaningful.