Re-reading Dusklands

This paper has two points of departure: the publication of Dusklands in 1974, and the event of the Dusklands 50 conference held at the University of the Western Cape exactly 50 years later, on the 18th and 19th of April, 2024. We consider aspects of the publication history of the first edition, with special reference to the book’s dustcover. This leads us to a discussion of the importance of photographs in Dusklands, and to an appreciation of the significance – at once political, ethical, and philosophical – of Coetzee’s stylistic deliberations. The dustcover of the first edition inspired our conference poster, and the cover images that Coetzee had initially chosen (but that were not used) are now on the cover of this special issue of English in Africa. Our paper gives a sense of current critical engagements with Coetzee’s first novel, and ends with a reflection on the venue of the conference itself, the Centre for Humanities Research on the Woodstock campus of the University of the Western Cape

Critical reflection · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · South African History and Culture