Author: Yanlin Long

Abstract: In J. M. Coetzee’s novel The Pole, the portrayal of the protagonist Witold as a Polish pianist specializing in Chopin’s works underscores the central role of music in the text. Music is used in the novel as a medium whereby Witold faces the fear of growing old and dying, as well as a tool of reaction to the marginalization of the cultural identity in the environment of exile. Finally, it is a protest against commodification of art in consumerist systems, an aesthetic protest. The aesthetic tension that Witold attributes to the music of Chopin as an externalization of his own will, is the counter-mainstream aesthetic of Said’s “late style”. It shows his attempt to restore national memory by way of music, and the obdurate tradition of the artistic subject in the culture industry which Adorno criticizes. Music in the novel serves both as a mode of experience of duration in time, a process of expressing cultural identity, and an exercise of maintaining artistic dignity. The three dimensions are interwoven to develop a multilayered form of resistance.

Keywords: Adorno, J. M. Coetzee, Musical writing, Said, The Pole.

Article Info: Received: 20 Mar 2026; Received in revised form: 20 Apr 2026; Accepted: 26 Apr 2026; Available online: 28 Apr 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.112.86