J. M. Coetzee and the Life of Writing
Face to Face with Time
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
J. M. Coetzee—winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, twice winner of the Man Booker Prize—is one of the world’s most celebrated and intriguing authors. Yet the heart of his fiction remains elusive.
In J. M. Coetzee and the Life of Writing, David Attwell explores the extraordinary creative processes behind Coetzee’s novels, from Dusklands to The Childhood of Jesus. Through a close examination of Coetzee’s manuscripts, notebooks and research papers, Attwell reveals the strong autobiographical thread that runs through his work, convincingly demonstrating that Coetzee’s writing proceeds with never-ending self-reflection.
A preeminent Coetzee scholar, Attwell offers fascinating insight into one of the most important and opaque literary figures of our time.
David Attwell is Head of the English Department at the University of York. He has written several works about and with J. M. Coetzee, including J. M. Coetzee: South Africa and the Politics of Writing (1993) and Doubling the Point (1992).
J. M. Coetzee and the Life of Writing is the first book to feature detailed information from the various stages of J. M. Coetzee’s manuscripts, sourced from more than 155 boxes of literary archive at the Harry Random Centre in the University of Texas.
‘In a series of readings outstanding for their meticulousness, care and sensitivity, Attwell gives us a study of J. M. Coetzee in time, yet also, ultimately, beyond time, confirmed in his position as one of the great writers of the late twentieth century…With this book our understanding of this writer’s life’s work, as well as of the work of a life, especially, but not only, that of Coetzee, is transformed.’ Elleke Boehmer, Professor of World Literature in English, University of Oxford.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Drawing on Coetzee's manuscripts, notebooks, and other archival papers, his former student Attwell marches placidly through the South African novelist's writings, from his debut, Dusklands (1974), to his most recent novel, The Childhood of Jesus (2013). Unsurprisingly, Attwell discovers that Coetzee's fiction is heavily autobiographical, even when it strives for a sense of artistic detachment. In Dusklands, Coetzee situates himself and his family history against the history and cartography of colonial South Africa, searching to discover "whose fault I am." Life & Times of Michael K (1983), whose outlaw title character is named for Kafka's Josef K., takes place in South Africa's mostly barren Karoo region. The bleak setting, a symbol for the barrenness of society, becomes a central motif in Coetzee's work. Foe (1986) contains Coetzee's feelings about both the injustices of colonialism and "failure of post-colonial nationalism." Through his close readings of Coetzee's manuscripts and other archival materials, Attwell provides a glimpse into the Nobel laureate's creative process: much of Coetzee's writing begins with the ordinary and continues onto a "determined process of deliteralization." While fans of Coetzee will find little that's new, Attwell's study may entice readers unfamiliar with the author to pick up his novels for the first time.
