J.M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading by Derek Attridge [New]

ISBN: 9781869140649 / 1869140648 - J.M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading by Derek Attridge. Published by UKZN Press, 2004. Softcover. New. 240 pp.

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 he South African dimension to 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 singual justice to our ethical impulses and acts. Attridge follows Coetzee's lead in exploring a number of issues such as interpretation and literary judgement, responsibility to the other, trust and betrayal, artistic commitment, confession, and the problematic idea of truth to the self.

All of our books are shipped using tracked courier delivery services.