J. M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading

Literature in the Event

Bibliographic Data

ID20011210
AuthorsD Attridge (0000-0002-9677-9500, corresponding author)
Year2005
Pages264
Publication date2005-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueJ. M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherJapan Society of Medical Entomology and Zoology (PUBLISHER • JP)
DOI10.7208/chicago/9780226818771.001.0001
OpenAlexW591770778
ISBN9780226818771
Open LibraryOL51654801M
LanguageEN
Citations received92

Nobel Prize-winning novelist J. M. Coetzee is one of the most widely taught contemporary writers, but also one of the most elusive. Many critics who have addressed his work have devoted themselves to rendering it more accessible and acceptable, often playing down the features that discomfort and perplex his readers. Yet it is just these features, Derek Attridge argues, that give Coetzee's work its haunting power and offer its greatest rewards. Attridge does justice to this power and these rewards in a study that serves as an introduction for readers new to Coetzee and a stimulus for thought for those who know his work well. Without overlooking the South African dimension of his fiction, Attridge treats Coetzee as a writer who raises questions of central importance to current debates both within literary studies and more widely in the ethical arena. Implicit throughout the book is Attridge's view that literature, more than philosophy, politics, or even religion, does singular justice to our ethical impulses and acts. Attridge follows Coetzee's lead in exploring a number of issues such as interpretation and literary judgment, responsibility to the other, trust and betrayal, artistic commitment, confession, and the problematic idea of truth to the self

Aesthetics · Art · Betrayal · Economic Justice · Epistemology · Ethics in literature · ethics of reading · J. M. Coetzee · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Reading (process) · Sociology · South African literature · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Law · Legal Issues in South Africa · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Philosophy · Philosophy and Literary Analysis · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology · South African History and Culture