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Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 Secular Study and Suffering: J.M. Coetzee's 'The Humanities in Africa'
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'Prominent literary philosophers as diverse as Martha Nussbaum, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak have envisioned a role for the humanities in fostering more ethical relationships on a global scale. Through a close reading of JM Coetzee's fifth “lesson” in Elizabeth Costello: eight lessons, this paper interrogates the limits of the humanities for promoting secular salvation. “Lesson five: the humanities in Africa”, I argue, troubles the distinction between secular teaching and religious faith as alternatives to living in a world imbued with suffering, by suggesting that neither the humanities nor religion materially offers an escape from suffering – that neither secular nor divine salvation exists beyond hope and faith. The lesson asks: do the humanities offer anything besides the promise of salvation to its students? If the secular salvation offered by the humanities fails to engage substantively with what one of Coetzee's characters calls “the reality of Africa”, despite calls for mutual understanding or an understanding of mutuality, how do we rethink the humanities? How do we imagine, and how might we re-imagine, the relationship between the humanities and quotidian suffering? Perhaps as obsessive, repetitive, imperfect performances, both the humanities and religion exist as rituals through which to live with others who are (also) suffering.'

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Scrutiny2 vol. 16 no. 1 2011 Z1839713 2011 periodical issue 2011 pg. 42-52
Last amended 2 Feb 2012 14:39:07
42-52 Secular Study and Suffering: J.M. Coetzee's 'The Humanities in Africa'small AustLit logo Scrutiny2
Subjects:
  • Africa,
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