J. M. Coetzee

Examines Coetzee's distinctive contribution to twentieth-century fiction, and to the definition of postmodernism and postcolonialism.

Dominic Head (Author)

9780521484237, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 August 2010

210 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.2 cm, 0.27 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Dominic Head's monograph on J. M. Coetzee is an excellent in-depth study of the novels, from which specialists and more general readers alike are stand to gain important insights into the complex make-up of the author's texts.' Zeitschrift für Anglistik unk Amerikanistik

The importance of J. M. Coetzee in the development of twentieth-century fiction is widely recognised. His work addresses some of the key issues of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: the relationship between postmodernism and postcolonialism, the role of history in the novel, and the question of how the author can combine an ethical and political consciousness with a commitment to the novel as a work of fiction. In this study, written in 1998, Dominic Head assesses Coetzee's position as a white South African writer engaged with the legacy of colonialism. Through close readings of all the novels, Head shows how Coetzee inhabits a transitional site between Europe and Africa, and it is from this position that his more general concerns emerge. Coetzee's engagement with the problems facing the postcolonial writer, Head argues, is always enriched by his awareness of a wider literary tradition.

Preface
List of abbreviations
Chronology
1. The writer's place: Coetzee and postcolonial literature
2. Writing violence: Dusklands
3. The wrong kind of love: In the Heart of the Country
4. An ethical awakening: Waiting for the Barbarians
5. Gardening as resistance: Life and Times of Michael K
6. The maze of doubting: Foe
7. A true confession: Age of Iron
8. Producing the demon: The Master of Petersburg
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK]