Magda as an Unreliable Narrator in J.M. Coetzee's In the Heart of the Country

In the Heart of the Country by J. M. Coetzee blurs the thin line between insanity and reality through the eyes of self-declared "spinster," Magda. This rapid thrust between lucid dreams and everyday life, however, merely provides the reader with a wholly unreliable narrator. This type of narration consumes the novel, as Magda does not actually recount what has occurred, but rather what she wishes to occur, or perhaps fantasizes such situations. Through this type of narration, the reader is owned my Magda and Magda alone, and therefore must subject his or herself to her emotions and assertions.

The reader is challenged when presented with the text in a blur of reckless accounts. We first believe Magda to have murdered her father and his wife with an axe, but after her father "reappears," it becomes clear that she has in fact merely fantasized about such an act. After gaining control of the text, the reader is tested time and again as Magda recounts her "experiences" via journal entries. Has Hendrik truly assaulted her?

Has her father taken on an African mistress? Did she proceed to shoot her father? The line between reality and fantasy is no longer visible, and the reader must take it upon his or herself to determine not only what Madga actually does, but what she wants us to know. Other works of literature have been based off the same concept of reality versus insanity. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James tells the tale of a young governess who believes she sees the spirits of her master's former workers. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is about a woman who sees the figure of a lady trapped in the striped wallpaper of her "recovery" room.