Coetzee's republic : Plato, Borges, and migrant memory in The Childhood of Jesus

In The Childhood of Jesus, J. M. Coetzee effectively confounds the refugee/migrant distinction. Several critics have chosen to see the novel's two protagonists, Simón and David, as refugees, newly arrived from across the water in the fictional town of Novilla. In this chapter, we explore the philosophical cartography of Novilla through two key figures: Plato, the progenitor of some of the foundational texts of Western philosophy; and Jorge Luis Borges, certain of whose enigmatic fictions refract the history and politics of his native Argentina. The curious consonance between these two writers gives weight and definition to the question of migrant memory, shedding light on some of the more inscrutable aspects of the novel, and revealing them to be both purposive and resonant.