AustLit

'This article focuses on the central role of Don Quixote (1605, 1615) in J.M. Coetzee’s Jesus novels, arguing for the relevance of the fact that it is Benengeli, the fictional Moorish historian – and not Cervantes – who is presented as the author of the Spanish novel. This is first explored in relation to the analogy that The Childhood of Jesus (2013) makes between authorship and paternity, along with the depiction of the relationship between authors and characters as one of temporary, non-substantial stepfatherhood. The disruption of Don Quixote’s authorship/paternity also traverses the trilogy’s questioning of linguistic origins, and concern with linguistic processes of estrangement, displacement and irony. Finally, Cervantes’s absence in Coetzee’s novels is examined in relation to David’s act of trust and blind belief in the character of Don Quixote, a response to both the performative power of words and the capacity of literary characters to outstrip their original authors.' (Publication abstract)

'Recent years have witnessed a steep rise in studies and monographs on the work of J. M. Coetzee. Many of them have been prompted by the publication of what has come to be known as the Jesus Trilogy, made up of the novels The Childhood of Jesus (2013), The Schooldays of Jesus (2016) and The Death of Jesus (2019), which in their highly original form and distinctive concerns have opened up the field to new readings and critical approaches to Coetzee’s fiction. Coetzee’s manuscripts at the Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin have also contributed to this increase in critical responses, with lots of critics turning to the exploration of the archive as a new way of analysing different aspects of Coetzee’s life and literary production.' (Introduction)

'This study traces, in J.M. Coetzee's fictional and non-fictional production, an imaginative and intellectual masterplot deriving from Coetzee's perception of European presence in (South) Africa as having its origin in an act of illegitimate penetration and fraudulent visitation. In Coetzee's novels, the historical and political problem of a hostile occupation and unfair distribution of the land finds a correspondence in the domestic space of house and farm, and the uneasy cohabitation of its occupants, along with the relation between hosts and guests. The seminal dimension of the categories of penetration and visitation is highlighted, as these are shown to operate not only on a spatial level but also on an epistemological, physical, psychological, hermeneutic, metafictional and ethical one: we encounter literary and psychological secrets that resist decipherment, bodies that cannot be penetrated, writers depicted as intruders, parents that ask to be welcomed by their children.
This study also identifies, in Coetzee's narrative, an ethical proposal grounded on a logic of excess and unconditionality - a logic of 'not enough' - lying behind certain acts of hospitality, friendship, kindness, care, and guidance to the gate of death, acts that may transform prevailing unequal socio-historical conditions and hostile personal relationships, characterized by a logic of parasitism and intrusion. As the figure of the writer progressively gains explicit prominence in Coetzee's literary production, special attention will be paid to it, as it alternately appears as secretary and master, migrant and intruder, pervert and foe, citizen and neighbour. Overall, Acts of Visitation analyzes how Coetzee's works depict the (South) African land, the Karoo farm, the familial household or the writer's and literary character's house as simultaneously contending and redemptive sites in which urgent historical, ethical, and metafictional issues are spatially explored and dramatized.' (Publishers' website)

Works published before Coetzee's arrival in Australia including, Dusklands, In the Heart of the Country, Waiting for the Barbarians, Life &​ Times of Michael K, Age of Iron, Disgrace, Foe, Boyhood and The Master of Petersburg are also discussed in this critical work.