J.M. Coetzee

Winner of the Nobel prize for literature, the South African-born novelist and essayist J.M. Coetzee is one of the most widely-discussed, ambiguous, controversial and powerful voices in contemporary Anglophone literature. In this seminar, we will read a selection of Coetzee's novels from across his career, from Life & Times of Michael K (1983) up to his stunning Jesus trilogy (final volume published in 2019). Interweaving a close reading of Coetzee's spare, collected prose fiction with careful attention to his literary criticism and critical reception, we will consider the following: ideas of exceptionality and difference; family dynamics, forgiveness and religious ethics; the rôle of literature in the social imaginary; South Africa, land rights, race, gender, sexuality and questions of reconciliation; narratives of passage and states of displacement; human relations to non-human animals (especially dogs) and vegetarianism.