J. M. Coetzee and Ethics: Philosophical Perspectives on Literature

by Anton Leist (Editor), Peter Singer (Editor)

Overview

In 2003, South African writer J. M. Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his riveting portrayals of racial repression, sexual politics, the guises of reason, and the hypocrisy of human beings toward animals and nature. Coetzee was credited with being "a scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of western civilization." The film of his novel Disgrace, starring John Malkovich, brought his challenging ideas to a new audience.

Anton Leist and Peter Singer have assembled an outstanding group of contributors who probe deeply into Coetzee's extensive and extraordinary corpus. They explore his approach to ethical theory and philosophy and pay particular attention to his representation of the human-animal relationship. They also confront Coetzee's depiction of the elementary conditions of life, the origins of morality, the recognition of value in others, the sexual dynamics between men and women, the normality of suppression, and the possibility of equality in postcolonial society. With its wide-ranging consideration of philosophical issues, especially in relation to fiction, this volume stands alone in its extraordinary exchange of ethical and literary inquiry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231520249
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	408
File size:	962 KB

About the Author

Anton Leist is professor of philosophy at the Ethics-Center of the University of Zurich. His books include A Question of Life, Good Action, Ethics of Social Relationships, and Action in Context.

Peter Singer is Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. His books include Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, Rethinking Life and Death, One World, and The Life You Can Save.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Coetzee and Philosophy, by Anton Leist and Peter Singer
Part I. People, Human Relationships, and Politics
1. The Paradoxes of Power in the Early Novels of J. M. Coetzee, by Robert Pippin
2. Disgrace, Desire, and the Dark Side of the New South Africa, by Adriaan van Heerden
3. Ethical Thought and the Problem of Communication: A Strategy for Reading Diary of a Bad Year, by Jonathan Lear
4. Torture and Collective Shame, by Jeff McMahan
Part II. Humans, Animals, and Morality
5. Converging Convictions: Coetzee and His Characters on Animals, by Karen Dawn and Peter Singer
6. Coetzee and Alternative Animal Ethics, by Elisa Aaltola
7. Writing the Lives of Animals, by Ido Geiger
8. Sympathy and Scapegoating in J. M. Coetzee, by Andy Lamey
Part III. Rationality and Human Lives
9. Against Society, Against History, Against Reason: Coetzee's Archaic Postmodernism, by Anton Leist
10. Coetzee's Critique of Reason, by Martin Woessner
11. J. M. Coetzee, Moral Thinker, by Alice Crary
12. Being True to Fact: Coetzee's Prose of the World, by Pieter Vermeulen
Part IV. Literature, Literary Style, and Philosophy
13. Truth and Love Together at Last: Style, Form, and Moral Vision in Age of Iron, by Samantha Vice
14. The Lives of Animals and the Form-Content Connection, by Jennifer Flynn
15. Irony and Belief in Elizabeth Costello, by Michael Funk Deckard and Ralph Palm
16. Coetzee's Hidden Polemic with Nietzsche, by Alena Dvorakova
List of Contributors
Index

What People are Saying About This

Matthew Calarco

This collection takes stock of J. M. Coetzee's impact from a number of interesting angles, including animals, sexuality, race, and reason. The time is truly ripe for such a volume. Philosophers who are interested in Coetzee's work will find these essays useful for their own research, and readers of Coetzee who share an interest in philosophy will be able to further explore those interests.

— Matthew Calarco, California State University at Fullerton, and author of Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida

Editorial Reviews

This collection of essays edited by Leist (philosophy, Univ. of Zurich) and Singer (bioethics, Princeton Univ.; The Life You Can Save) examines the philosophical qualities of Coetzee's works. The topics covered are ethics, human suffering, animal rights, and rationality, and while most of his novels are examined, many of the essays focus on Elizabeth Costello and Disgrace. Although some essays discuss Coetzee's writing style, most are concerned with the philosophical concepts presented in his stories and also applying the theories of such philosophers as Hegel and Nietzsche to his novels. The editors write that the purpose of the collection is to show how philosophy can help explain issues raised in literature and also how literature can enhance philosophy by showing, in an imaginative way, the practical applications of its concepts. VERDICT Although contributors may examine the same novels, they bring out different aspects and critiques of each novel's philosophical qualities. Scholarly readers with an interest in Coetzee's novels or philosophy's relationship to literature will find this work highly rewarding.—Scott Duimstra, Capital Area Dist. Lib., Lansing, MI

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