• Vandana Yadav

Literature is well recognized for mirroring the contemporary issues of society. South African literature is replete with the theme of Apartheid but it was in hands of J M Coetzee who brought this issue worldwide. John Maxwell Coetzee who was awarded Nobel Prize for Literature and won the Booker Prize took the issues of poverty, crime and violence as the central themes of post- apartheid literature and Coetzee faces the difficult of cultural authority. Being a white South African writer he confronted the problem of representing the black population in his narratives. He required being extra careful in applying cultural divisions into an imaginary work. The quest for identity is highly explored theme among authors and critical theorists. If we examine, the South African Literature ‘search for identity’ is one of the main theme and undoubtedly Coetzee has no exempted from it. The present paper would study for the quest for identity in the novel Life & Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee. Identity is essential for the existence of humans and through the present paper examines the heart breaking reality of human life in South Africa which is ‘search for identity’.

Search for identity, post-apartheid, apartheid, South African literature.

"A Quest for Identity in an age of Alienation", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 3, page no.505-509, March-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1903G74.pdf

"A Quest for Identity in an age of Alienation", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 3, page no. pp505-509, March-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1903G74.pdf