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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'This is the first book to focus entirely on the under-researched but crucial topic of women in the work of J. M. Coetzee, generally regarded as one of the world’s most significant living writers. The fourteen essays in this collection raise the central issue of how Coetzee’s texts address the ‘woman question’. There is a focus on Coetzee’s representation of women, engagement with women writers and the ethics of what has been termed his ‘ventriloquism’ of women’s voices in his fiction and autobiographical writings, right up to his most recent novel, The Schooldays of Jesus. As such, this collection makes important links between the disciplines of literary and gender studies. It includes essays by well-known Coetzee scholars as well as by emerging scholars from around the world, providing fascinating and timely global insights into how his works are read from differing cultural and scholarly perspectives.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Contents
- J. M. Coetzee and the Woman Question, single work criticism (p. 1-16)
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He and His Woman : Passing Performances and Coetzee’s Dialogic Drag,
single work
criticism
(p. 19-37)Examines Elizabeth Costello through the lens of what the author calls 'dialogic drag'.
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Molly Bloom and Elizabeth Costello : Coetzee’s Female Characters and the Limits of the Sympathetic Imagination,
single work
criticism
(p. 39-53)Examines Coetzee's 'writing back' to James Joyce in Elizabeth Costello.
- 'A New Footing' : Re-reading the Barbarian Girl in Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, single work criticism (p. 55-68)
- Art and the Female in Youth : Between Joyce and Beckett, single work criticism (p. 71-86)
- 'Beauty Does Not Own Itself' : Coetzee’s Feminist Critique of Platonic and Kantian Aesthetics, single work criticism (p. 87-109)
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J. M. Coetzee and the Women of the Canon,
single work
criticism
(p. 113-127)Contrasts J.M. Coetzee's inclusiveness towards women as characters with their relative absence both in intertextual influences and his scholarly work.
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Robinsonaden in the Feminine? Coetzee’s Foe and Muriel Spark’s Robinson,
single work
criticism
(p. 129-147)Examines Coetzee's Foe against Muriel Spark's Robinson, including the link between literature, politics, and power.
- The Fixation on the Womb and the Ambiguity of the Mother in Life & Times of Michael K, single work criticism (p. 151-164)
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'God Knows Whether There Is a Dulcinea in This World or Not' : Idealised Passion and Undecidable Desire in J. M. Coetzee,
single work
criticism
(p. 165-182)Analyses Coetzee's depiction of women via the influence on his work on Don Quixote and the figure of Dulcinea.
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Seeing Where Others See Nothing : Coetzee’s Magda, Cassandra in the Karoo,
single work
criticism
(p. 183-201)Analyses the character of Magda in In the Heart of the Country through oblique allusions to Greek drama, particularly Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy, Agamemnon, and Euripides' Trojan Women.
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Reading Coetzee Expectantly : From Magda to Lucy,
single work
criticism
(p. 205-219)Contrasts Magda in In the Heart of the Country and Lucy in Disgrace, with a particular focus on the extent to which changes in narrative approach facilitate or block access to a character's interiority.
- Women’s Knowledge : Self-Knowledge and Women’s Frank Speech in J. M. Coetzee’s Summertime, single work criticism (p. 221-238)
- On Beyond the Representational Binary : Coetzee (and the Women) Take Wing, single work criticism (p. 239-244)
