Strong Opinions: J.M. Coetzee and the Authority of Contemporary Fiction by Dr. C

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Shows how Coetzee makes us reconsider certain basic formal and existential questions such as the nature of literary realism and the authority of the author.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

This new collection of essays on Coetzee examines how his novels create and unsettle literary authority. Its unique contribution is to show how Coetzee provokes us into reconsidering certain basic formal and existential questions such as the nature of literary realism, the authority of the author and the constitution of the human self in a posthumanist setting by consciously revealing the literary-theoretical seams of his work. Strong Opinions makes the innovative claim that Coetzee's work is driven not by a sense of scepticism or nihilism but rather by a form of controlled exposure that defines the literary. The essays in the volume variously draw attention to three of Coetzee's most recent and significant experiments in controlled exposure. The first is the exposure of place-Coetzee's decision to set his novels in his newly adopted country of Australia. The second is the exposure of form-Coetzee's direct, almost essayistic address of literary-philosophical topics within his novels. And the third is the exposure of limits-Coetzee's explicit deconstruction of the traditional limits of human life.

Author Biography

Chris Danta is Senior Lecturer in English in the School of English, Media and Performing Arts at the University of New South Wales. He has published essays in New Literary History, Textual Practice, Modernism/Modernity, Sub-Stance and Literature and Theology.Sue Kossew is Professor of English at Monash University, Australia. Her publications include Pen and Power: A Post-colonial Reading of J. M. Coetzee and André Brink (1996), Critical Essays on J. M. Coetzee (1998), Re-Imagining Africa: New Critical Perspectives (Nova Science, 2001, co-edited with Dianne Schwerdt) and Writing Woman, Writing Place: Australian and South African Fiction (2004).Julian Murphet is Professor of Modern Film and Literature at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is the author of Multimedia Modernism (2009), Literature and Race in Los Angeles (2001), co-author of Narrative and Media (2005), and co-editor of Literature and Visual Technologies (2003).

Table of Contents

AcknowledgementsContributorsIntroductionJ.M. Coetzee: the Janus Face of AuthorityChris DantaPart One: Place1. J.M. Coetzee's Australian RealismElleke Boehmer2. "[I]n Australia you start zero": the Escape from Place in J.M. Coetzee's Late NovelsMelinda Harvey3. J.M. Coetzee and Patrick White: Explorers, Settlers, GuestsMaria LópezPart Two: Form4. Coetzee's OpinonsPaul Patton5. Diary of a Bad Year: Parrhesia, Opinion, and Novelistic FormJulian Murphet6. Realism and Intertextuality in Coetzee's FoeAnthony UhlmannPart Three: Limits7. The Trope of Following in J. M. Coetzee's Slow ManMike Marais8. Literary Migration: Shifting Borders in Coetzee's Australian NovelsSue Kossew9. The Melancholy Ape: Coetzee's Fables of Animal FinitudeChris Danta10. Silence as Heterotopia in Coetzee's FictionBill AshcroftBibliographyIndex

Review

A clearly focussed and helpful contribution to the demanding and as yet barely embarked-upon task of coming to terms with Coetzee's most recent writings. -- Stephen Mulhall, Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy, New College, University of Oxford, UK, and author of The Wounded Animal: J.M.Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and PhilosophyThe essays in Strong Opinions, written by some of the top scholars in the field of Coetzee studies, work in productive ways to examine how Coetzee's writing, particularly his post-apartheid and Australia-era works, perform a position that not only questions the role of literature as authority but also deconstruct the very idea that literary authority is possible. These essays call to attention Coetzee's explicitly self-conscious act of story telling as his works navigate and negotiate specific locales, both literal and figurative. And this collection, like the works that it examines, astutely pushes the limits of what literature and literary analysis can do and asks that we, as readers, explore a tenuous duality in Coetzee's fiction: the public duty of the writer to his audience and the private— and perhaps transcendent—duty of the artist to his conscience. -- Laura Wright, Associate Professor of English, Western Carolina University, USA, and author of Writing "Out of All the Camps": J.M. Coetzee's Narratives of Displacement

Promotional

Shows how Coetzee makes us reconsider certain basic formal and existential questions such as the nature of literary realism and the authority of the author.

Review Quote

"The essays in Strong Opinions, written by some of the top scholars in the field of Coetzee studies, work in productive ways to examine how Coetzee's writing, particularly his post-apartheid and Australia-era works, perform a position that not only questions the role of literature as authority but also deconstruct the very idea that literary authority is possible. These essays call to attention Coetzee's explicitly self-conscious act of story telling as his works navigate and negotiate specific locales, both literal and figurative.

Promotional "Headline"

Shows how Coetzee makes us reconsider certain basic formal and existential questions such as the nature of literary realism and the authority of the author.

Feature

Provides major new readings of Coetzee's late fiction

Details ISBN1623569583 Short Title STRONG OPINIONS Language English ISBN-10 1623569583 ISBN-13 9781623569587 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY 823.914 Year 2013 Publication Date 2013-05-23 Subtitle J.M. Coetzee and the Authority of Contemporary Fiction DOI CBID180312 Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Edited by Julian Murphet Illustrations black & white illustrations Pages 192 Imprint Bloomsbury Academic USA UK Release Date 2013-05-23 NZ Release Date 2013-05-23 US Release Date 2013-05-23 Author Julian Murphet Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Audience General AU Release Date 2013-05-22 We've got this

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