John Maxwell Coetzee
Encyclopedia
John Maxwell Coetzee ; (born 9 February 1940) is an author and academic from South Africa
. He is now an Australian citizen
and lives in Adelaide
, South Australia
. A novelist and literary critic
as well as a translator, Coetzee has won the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature
.
, Cape Province
, Union of South Africa
, on 9 February 1940 to parents of Afrikaner
descent. His father was an occasional lawyer, government employee and sheep farmer, and his mother a schoolteacher. The family spoke English at home, but Coetzee spoke Afrikaans with other relatives. The family were descended from early Dutch immigrants dating to the 17th century, although his maternal grand-grandfather - Baltazar Dubiel - was Polish
.
Coetzee spent most of his early life in Cape Town and in Worcester in Cape Province (modern-day Western Cape
) as recounted in his fictionalized memoir, Boyhood
(1997). The family moved to Worcester when Coetzee was eight after his father lost his government job due to disagreements over the state's apartheid policy. Coetzee attended St. Joseph's College, a Catholic school in the Cape Town suburb of Rondebosch
, and later studied mathematics and English at the University of Cape Town
, receiving his Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English in 1960 and his Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Mathematics in 1961.
Coetzee married Philippa Jubber in 1963 and divorced in 1980. He had a daughter, Gisela (born 1968), and a son, Nicolas (born 1966), from the marriage. Nicolas died in 1989 at the age of 23 in an accident.
in London. In 1963, while working in the UK, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree from the University of Cape Town
for a dissertation on the novels of Ford Madox Ford
. His experiences in England were later recounted in Youth (2002), his second volume of fictionalized memoirs.
Coetzee went to the University of Texas at Austin
, in the United States, on the Fulbright Program
in 1965. He received a PhD in linguistics there in 1969. His PhD thesis was on computer stylistic analysis
of the works of Samuel Beckett
. In 1968, he began teaching English literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo
where he stayed until 1971. It was at Buffalo that he started his first novel, Dusklands
. In 1971, Coetzee sought permanent residence in the United States, but it was denied due to his involvement in anti-Vietnam-War protests
. In March 1970, Coetzee had been one of 45 faculty members who occupied the university's Hayes Hall and were subsequently arrested for criminal trespass. He then returned to South Africa to teach English literature at the University of Cape Town. He was promoted to Professor of General Literature in 1983 and was Distinguished Professor of Literature between 1999 and 2001. Upon retiring in 2002, Coetzee relocated to Adelaide, Australia, where he was made an honorary research fellow at the English Department of the University of Adelaide
, where his partner, Dorothy Driver, is a fellow academic. He served as professor on the Committee on Social Thought
at the University of Chicago
until 2003. In addition to his novels, he has published critical works and translations from Dutch
and Afrikaans
.
On 6 March 2006, Coetzee became an Australian citizen.
In June 2011 he gave a reading from his new book at the University of York, UK, though no title or release date has been made available.
in person. Author Rian Malan
has said that:
As a result of his reclusive nature, signed copies of Coetzee's fiction are highly sought after. Recognising this, he was a key figure in the establishment of Oak Tree Press
's First Chapter Series, a series of limited edition signed works by literary greats to raise money for the child victims and orphans of the African HIV/AIDS crisis.
was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
, and he is three-times winner of the CNA Prize. Age of Iron
was awarded the Sunday Express Book of the Year
award, and The Master of Petersburg
was awarded the Irish Times International Fiction Prize in 1995. He has also won the French Prix Femina Étranger, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize
, and the 1987 Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society
.
He was the first author to be awarded the Booker Prize twice: first for Life & Times of Michael K
in 1983, and again for Disgrace in 1999. Only one author has matched this since – Peter Carey, an Australian. Coetzee was named on the longlist for the 2009 prize for Summertime
and was an early favourite to win. Coetzee subsequently made the shortlist, but lost out to bookmakers' favourite and eventual winner Hilary Mantel
. Coetzee was also longlisted in 2003 for Elizabeth Costello
and in 2005 for Slow Man
.
On 2 October 2003 it was announced that he was to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature
, making him the fifth African writer to be so honoured, and the second South African after Nadine Gordimer
. When awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy stated that Coetzee "in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider". The press release for the award also cited his "well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance," while focusing on the moral nature of his work. The prize ceremony was held in Stockholm on 10 December 2003. Coetzee was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe
(gold class) by the South African government on 27 September 2005 for his "exceptional contribution in the field of literature and for putting South Africa on the world stage." He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Adelaide, La Trobe University
, the University of Natal
, the University of Oxford
, Rhodes University
, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Strathclyde
and the University of Technology, Sydney
.
Asked about the latter part of this quote in an interview, Coetzee said:
and Breyten Breytenbach
, Coetzee was, according to Fred Pfeil
, at "the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement within Afrikaner literature and letters". On accepting the Jerusalem Prize in 1987, Coetzee spoke of the limitations of art in South African society, whose structures had resulted in "deformed and stunted relations between human beings" and "a deformed and stunted inner life". He went on to say that "South African literature is a literature in bondage. It is a less than fully human literature. It is exactly the kind of literature you would expect people to write from prison". He called on the South African government to abandon its apartheid policy. Scholar Isidore Diala states that J. M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer and André Brink are "three of South Africa's most distinguished white writers, all with definite anti-apartheid commitment".
It has been argued that Coetzee's 1999 novel Disgrace allegorises South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Asked about his views on the TRC, Coetzee has stated: "In a state with no official religion, the TRC was somewhat anomalous: a court of a certain kind based to a large degree on Christian teaching and on a strand of Christian teaching accepted in their hearts by only a tiny proportion of the citizenry. Only the future will tell what the TRC managed to achieve".
Following his Australian citizenship ceremony, Coetzee said that "I did not so much leave South Africa, a country with which I retain strong emotional ties, but come to Australia. I came because from the time of my first visit in 1991, I was attracted by the free and generous spirit of the people, by the beauty of the land itself and – when I first saw Adelaide – by the grace of the city that I now have the honour of calling my home." When he initially moved to Australia, he had cited the South African government's lax attitude to crime in that country
as a reason for the move, leading to a spat with Thabo Mbeki
, who, speaking of Coetzee's novel Disgrace stated that "South Africa is not only a place of rape". In 1999, the African National Congress
submission to an investigation into racism in the media by the South African Human Rights Commission
named Disgrace as a novel exploiting racist stereotypes. However, when Coetzee won his Nobel Prize, Mbeki congratulated him "on behalf of the South African nation and indeed the continent of Africa".
, which has been described as blending "memoir with fiction, academic criticism with novelistic narration" and refusing "to recognize the border that has traditionally separated political theory from fictional narrative", shares similar concerns about the policies of John Howard
and George W. Bush
.
and advocate for the animal rights
movement. In a speech given on his behalf by Hugo Weaving
in Sydney on 22 February 2007, Coetzee railed against the modern animal husbandry
industry. The speech was for Voiceless, an Australian non-profit
animal protection organization. Coetzee's fiction has similarly engaged with the problems of animal cruelty and animal welfare, in particular his books Disgrace, The Lives of Animals
and Elizabeth Costello
. He is vegetarian
.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. He is now an Australian citizen
Australian nationality law
Australian nationality law determines who is and who is not an Australian, and is based primarily on the principle of Jus soli. The status of Australian citizenship was created by the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 which received Royal Assent on 21 December 1948 and came into force on...
and lives in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. A novelist and literary critic
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
as well as a translator, Coetzee has won the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
.
Early life and education
Coetzee was born in Cape TownCape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, Cape Province
Cape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...
, Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...
, on 9 February 1940 to parents of Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
descent. His father was an occasional lawyer, government employee and sheep farmer, and his mother a schoolteacher. The family spoke English at home, but Coetzee spoke Afrikaans with other relatives. The family were descended from early Dutch immigrants dating to the 17th century, although his maternal grand-grandfather - Baltazar Dubiel - was Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
.
Coetzee spent most of his early life in Cape Town and in Worcester in Cape Province (modern-day Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...
) as recounted in his fictionalized memoir, Boyhood
Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life
Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life is a fictionalised autobiographical work by J.M. Coetzee, and focuses on his years spent growing up in South Africa....
(1997). The family moved to Worcester when Coetzee was eight after his father lost his government job due to disagreements over the state's apartheid policy. Coetzee attended St. Joseph's College, a Catholic school in the Cape Town suburb of Rondebosch
Rondebosch
Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with a medium-size shopping area, a small business district as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town.-History:...
, and later studied mathematics and English at the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
, receiving his Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English in 1960 and his Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Mathematics in 1961.
Coetzee married Philippa Jubber in 1963 and divorced in 1980. He had a daughter, Gisela (born 1968), and a son, Nicolas (born 1966), from the marriage. Nicolas died in 1989 at the age of 23 in an accident.
Academic and literary career
Coetzee relocated to the United Kingdom in 1962, where he worked as a computer programmer, staying until 1965. He worked for IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
in London. In 1963, while working in the UK, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree from the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
for a dissertation on the novels of Ford Madox Ford
Ford Madox Ford
Ford Madox Ford was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals, The English Review and The Transatlantic Review, were instrumental in the development of early 20th-century English literature...
. His experiences in England were later recounted in Youth (2002), his second volume of fictionalized memoirs.
Coetzee went to the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
, in the United States, on the Fulbright Program
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
in 1965. He received a PhD in linguistics there in 1969. His PhD thesis was on computer stylistic analysis
Stylistics (linguistics)
Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts from a linguistic perspective. As a discipline it links literary criticism and linguistics, but has no autonomous domain of its own...
of the works of Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
. In 1968, he began teaching English literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, also commonly known as the University at Buffalo or UB, is a public research university and a "University Center" in the State University of New York system. The university was founded by Millard Fillmore in 1846. UB has multiple campuses...
where he stayed until 1971. It was at Buffalo that he started his first novel, Dusklands
Dusklands
Dusklands is the first novel by J. M. Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is a presentation and critique of the violence inherent in the colonialist and imperialist mentality of the Western world....
. In 1971, Coetzee sought permanent residence in the United States, but it was denied due to his involvement in anti-Vietnam-War protests
Opposition to the Vietnam War
The movement against US involvment in the in Vietnam War began in the United States with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. The US became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam, and those who wanted peace. Peace movements consisted largely of...
. In March 1970, Coetzee had been one of 45 faculty members who occupied the university's Hayes Hall and were subsequently arrested for criminal trespass. He then returned to South Africa to teach English literature at the University of Cape Town. He was promoted to Professor of General Literature in 1983 and was Distinguished Professor of Literature between 1999 and 2001. Upon retiring in 2002, Coetzee relocated to Adelaide, Australia, where he was made an honorary research fellow at the English Department of the University of Adelaide
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
, where his partner, Dorothy Driver, is a fellow academic. He served as professor on the Committee on Social Thought
Committee on Social Thought
The Committee on Social Thought is one of several PhD-granting committees at the University of Chicago. It was started in 1941 by historian John Ulric Nef along with economist Frank Knight, anthropologist Robert Redfield, and University President Robert Maynard Hutchins.The committee is...
at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
until 2003. In addition to his novels, he has published critical works and translations from Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
and Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
.
On 6 March 2006, Coetzee became an Australian citizen.
In June 2011 he gave a reading from his new book at the University of York, UK, though no title or release date has been made available.
Personality and reputation
Coetzee is known as reclusive and eschews publicity to such an extent that he did not collect either of his two Booker PrizesMan Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...
in person. Author Rian Malan
Rian Malan
Rian Malan is a South African author, journalist, documentarist and songwriter of Afrikaner descent. He first rose to prominence as the author of the memoir My Traitor's Heart, which, like the bulk of his work, deals with South African society in a historical and contemporary perspective and...
has said that:
As a result of his reclusive nature, signed copies of Coetzee's fiction are highly sought after. Recognising this, he was a key figure in the establishment of Oak Tree Press
Oak Tree Press
Oak Tree Fine Press is a small not-for-profit publishing house set up with the assistance of Nobel Laureate John Maxwell Coetzee. It publishes limited edition hand bound signed books featuring the work of world leading authors and artists....
's First Chapter Series, a series of limited edition signed works by literary greats to raise money for the child victims and orphans of the African HIV/AIDS crisis.
Achievements and awards
Coetzee has gained many awards throughout his career, although he has a reputation for avoiding award ceremonies. His novel Waiting for the BarbariansWaiting for the Barbarians
Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel by the South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. The novel was published in 1980. It was chosen by Penguin for its series Great Books of the 20th Century and won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and...
was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize is a British literary prize established in 1963 in tribute to Geoffrey Faber, founder and first Chairman publisher Faber & Faber...
, and he is three-times winner of the CNA Prize. Age of Iron
Age of Iron
Age of Iron is a 1990 novel by South African Nobel Prize winner J. M. Coetzee. It is among his most popular works and was the 1990 Sunday Express Book of the Year. In it, he paints a picture of social and political tragedy unfolding in a country ravaged by racism and violence.-Plot summary:The...
was awarded the Sunday Express Book of the Year
The Sunday Express Book of the Year
The Sunday Express Book of the Year also known as The Sunday Express Fiction Award was awarded between 1987 and 1993. Worth £20,000 for the winner and £1,000 for each of the five shortlisted authors, it was the most lucrative fiction prize in Britain at the time.-Winners:*1987 - Brian Moore, The...
award, and The Master of Petersburg
The Master of Petersburg
The Master of Petersburg is a 1994 novel by South African writer J. M. Coetzee. The novel is a work of fiction but features the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky as its protagonist. It is a deep, complex work that draws on the life of Dostoyevsky, the life of the author and the history of Russia to...
was awarded the Irish Times International Fiction Prize in 1995. He has also won the French Prix Femina Étranger, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Commonwealth Writers is an initiative by the Commonwealth Foundation to unearth, develop and promote the best new fiction from across the Commonwealth. It's flagship are two literary awards and a website...
, and the 1987 Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society
Jerusalem Prize
The Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society is a biennial literary award given to writers whose works have dealt with themes of human freedom in society. It is awarded at the Jerusalem International Book Fair, and the recipient usually delivers an address when accepting the award...
.
He was the first author to be awarded the Booker Prize twice: first for Life & Times of Michael K
Life & Times of Michael K
Life & Times of Michael K is a 1983 novel by South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2003. The book itself won the Booker Prize for 1983...
in 1983, and again for Disgrace in 1999. Only one author has matched this since – Peter Carey, an Australian. Coetzee was named on the longlist for the 2009 prize for Summertime
Summertime (novel)
Summertime is a 2009 novel by South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the third in a series of fictionalized memoirs by Coetzee and details the life of one John Coetzee from the perspective of five people who have known him...
and was an early favourite to win. Coetzee subsequently made the shortlist, but lost out to bookmakers' favourite and eventual winner Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mary Mantel CBE , née Thompson, is an English novelist, short story writer and critic. Her work, ranging in subject from personal memoir to historical fiction, has been short-listed for major literary awards...
. Coetzee was also longlisted in 2003 for Elizabeth Costello
Elizabeth Costello
Elizabeth Costello is a 2003 novel by South African-born Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee.In this novel, Elizabeth Costello, an aging Australian writer, travels around the world and gives lectures on topics including the lives of animals and literary censorship...
and in 2005 for Slow Man
Slow Man
Slow Man is a 2005 novel by South African/Australian author J. M. Coetzee, and concerns a man who must learn to adapt after losing a leg in a road accident. The novel has many varied themes, including the nature of care, the relationship between an author and his characters, and man's drive to...
.
On 2 October 2003 it was announced that he was to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
, making him the fifth African writer to be so honoured, and the second South African after Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".Her writing has long dealt...
. When awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy stated that Coetzee "in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider". The press release for the award also cited his "well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance," while focusing on the moral nature of his work. The prize ceremony was held in Stockholm on 10 December 2003. Coetzee was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe
Order of Mapungubwe
The Order of Mapungubwe is South Africa's highest honour. It was instituted on 6 December 2002, and is granted by the president of South Africa, for achievements in the international area which have served South Africa's interests...
(gold class) by the South African government on 27 September 2005 for his "exceptional contribution in the field of literature and for putting South Africa on the world stage." He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Adelaide, La Trobe University
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a multi-campus university in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1964 by an Act of Parliament to become the third oldest university in the state of Victoria. The main campus of La Trobe is located in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora; two other major campuses are...
, the University of Natal
University of Natal
The University of Natal was a university in Natal, and later KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, that is now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, and expanded to include a campus in Durban in 1931. In 1947, the university...
, the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, Rhodes University
Rhodes University
Rhodes University is a public research university located in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, established in 1904. It is the province’s oldest university, and is one of the four universities in the province...
, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Strathclyde
University of Strathclyde
The University of Strathclyde , Glasgow, Scotland, is Glasgow's second university by age, founded in 1796, and receiving its Royal Charter in 1964 as the UK's first technological university...
and the University of Technology, Sydney
University of Technology, Sydney
The University of Technology Sydney is a university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1981, although its origins trace back to the 1870s. UTS is notable for its central location as the only university with its main campuses within the Sydney CBD...
.
Political orientation
Writing about his past in the third person, Coetzee states in Doubling the Point that:Asked about the latter part of this quote in an interview, Coetzee said:
Views on South Africa
Along with André BrinkAndré Brink
André Philippus Brink, OIS, is a South African novelist. He writes in Afrikaans and English and is a Professor of English at the University of Cape Town....
and Breyten Breytenbach
Breyten Breytenbach
Breyten Breytenbach is a South African writer and painter with French citizenship.-Biography:Breyten Breytenbach was born in Bonnievale, Western Cape, approximately 180 km from Cape Town and 100 km from the southernmost tip of Africa at Cape Agulhas...
, Coetzee was, according to Fred Pfeil
Fred Pfeil
John Frederick Pfeil was an American literary critic and novelist. Pfeil was born September 21 in Port Allegany, Pennsylvania. He earned an undergraduate degree at Amherst College in 1971 and an M.A. at Stanford University in 1973...
, at "the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement within Afrikaner literature and letters". On accepting the Jerusalem Prize in 1987, Coetzee spoke of the limitations of art in South African society, whose structures had resulted in "deformed and stunted relations between human beings" and "a deformed and stunted inner life". He went on to say that "South African literature is a literature in bondage. It is a less than fully human literature. It is exactly the kind of literature you would expect people to write from prison". He called on the South African government to abandon its apartheid policy. Scholar Isidore Diala states that J. M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer and André Brink are "three of South Africa's most distinguished white writers, all with definite anti-apartheid commitment".
It has been argued that Coetzee's 1999 novel Disgrace allegorises South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Asked about his views on the TRC, Coetzee has stated: "In a state with no official religion, the TRC was somewhat anomalous: a court of a certain kind based to a large degree on Christian teaching and on a strand of Christian teaching accepted in their hearts by only a tiny proportion of the citizenry. Only the future will tell what the TRC managed to achieve".
Following his Australian citizenship ceremony, Coetzee said that "I did not so much leave South Africa, a country with which I retain strong emotional ties, but come to Australia. I came because from the time of my first visit in 1991, I was attracted by the free and generous spirit of the people, by the beauty of the land itself and – when I first saw Adelaide – by the grace of the city that I now have the honour of calling my home." When he initially moved to Australia, he had cited the South African government's lax attitude to crime in that country
Crime in South Africa
Crime is a prominent issue in South Africa. South Africa has a high rate of murders, assaults, rapes, and other crimes compared to most countries. Many emigrants from South Africa state that crime was a big factor in their decision to leave...
as a reason for the move, leading to a spat with Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...
, who, speaking of Coetzee's novel Disgrace stated that "South Africa is not only a place of rape". In 1999, the African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
submission to an investigation into racism in the media by the South African Human Rights Commission
South African Human Rights Commission
The South African Human Rights Commission was inaugurated in October 1995 as an independent national institution. It draws its mandate from the South African Constitution by way of the South African Human Rights Commission Act of 1994....
named Disgrace as a novel exploiting racist stereotypes. However, when Coetzee won his Nobel Prize, Mbeki congratulated him "on behalf of the South African nation and indeed the continent of Africa".
Criticism of anti-terrorism laws
In 2005, Coetzee criticised contemporary anti-terrorism laws as resembling those employed by the apartheid regime in South Africa: "I used to think that the people who created [South Africa's] laws that effectively suspended the rule of law were moral barbarians. Now I know they were just pioneers ahead of their time". The main character in Coetzee's 2007 Diary of a Bad YearDiary of a Bad Year
Diary of a Bad Year is a book by South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, who won the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature. It was released by Text Publishing in Australia on 3 September 2007, in the United Kingdom by Harvill Secker on 6 September, and in the United States on 27 December.- Plot summary...
, which has been described as blending "memoir with fiction, academic criticism with novelistic narration" and refusing "to recognize the border that has traditionally separated political theory from fictional narrative", shares similar concerns about the policies of John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
and George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
.
Animal rights
In recent years, Coetzee has become a vocal critic of animal crueltyCruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with...
and advocate for the animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
movement. In a speech given on his behalf by Hugo Weaving
Hugo Weaving
Hugo Wallace Weaving is a Nigerian born, English-Australian film actor and voice artist. He is best known for his roles as Agent Smith in the Matrix trilogy, Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, "V" in V for Vendetta, and performances in numerous Australian character dramas.-Early...
in Sydney on 22 February 2007, Coetzee railed against the modern animal husbandry
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
industry. The speech was for Voiceless, an Australian non-profit
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
animal protection organization. Coetzee's fiction has similarly engaged with the problems of animal cruelty and animal welfare, in particular his books Disgrace, The Lives of Animals
The Lives of Animals
The Lives of Animals is a collection of essays and fictions organized around the question of animal rights. The centerpiece of the collection is a novella titled “The Lives of Animals” by Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee. The collection features an introduction by Amy Gutmann...
and Elizabeth Costello
Elizabeth Costello
Elizabeth Costello is a 2003 novel by South African-born Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee.In this novel, Elizabeth Costello, an aging Australian writer, travels around the world and gives lectures on topics including the lives of animals and literary censorship...
. He is vegetarian
Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
.
Fiction
- DusklandsDusklandsDusklands is the first novel by J. M. Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is a presentation and critique of the violence inherent in the colonialist and imperialist mentality of the Western world....
(1974) ISBN 0-14-024177-9 - In the Heart of the CountryIn the Heart of the CountryIn the Heart of the Country is an English language novel by J. M. Coetzee which delves in the complex relationships that form between the colonizer and the colonized. It takes place on an isolate farm in South Africa told through the perspective of an unmarried white woman who takes care of her...
(1977) ISBN 0-14-006228-9 - Waiting for the BarbariansWaiting for the BarbariansWaiting for the Barbarians is a novel by the South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. The novel was published in 1980. It was chosen by Penguin for its series Great Books of the 20th Century and won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and...
(1980) ISBN 0-14-006110-X - Life & Times of Michael KLife & Times of Michael KLife & Times of Michael K is a 1983 novel by South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2003. The book itself won the Booker Prize for 1983...
(1983) ISBN 0-14-007448-1 - FoeFoe (novel)Foe is a 1986 novel by South African author J. M. Coetzee. Woven around the existing plot of Robinson Crusoe, Foe is written from the perspective of Susan Barton, a castaway who landed on the same island inhabited by "Cruso" and Friday as their adventures were already underway...
(1986) ISBN 0-14-009623-X - Age of Iron (1990) ISBN 0-14-027565-7
- The Master of PetersburgThe Master of PetersburgThe Master of Petersburg is a 1994 novel by South African writer J. M. Coetzee. The novel is a work of fiction but features the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky as its protagonist. It is a deep, complex work that draws on the life of Dostoyevsky, the life of the author and the history of Russia to...
(1994) ISBN 0-14-023810-7 - The Lives of AnimalsThe Lives of AnimalsThe Lives of Animals is a collection of essays and fictions organized around the question of animal rights. The centerpiece of the collection is a novella titled “The Lives of Animals” by Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee. The collection features an introduction by Amy Gutmann...
(1999) ISBN 0-691-07089-X - Disgrace (1999) ISBN 978-0143115281
- Elizabeth CostelloElizabeth CostelloElizabeth Costello is a 2003 novel by South African-born Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee.In this novel, Elizabeth Costello, an aging Australian writer, travels around the world and gives lectures on topics including the lives of animals and literary censorship...
(2003) ISBN 0-670-03130-5 - Slow ManSlow ManSlow Man is a 2005 novel by South African/Australian author J. M. Coetzee, and concerns a man who must learn to adapt after losing a leg in a road accident. The novel has many varied themes, including the nature of care, the relationship between an author and his characters, and man's drive to...
(2005) ISBN 0-670-03459-2 - Diary of a Bad YearDiary of a Bad YearDiary of a Bad Year is a book by South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, who won the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature. It was released by Text Publishing in Australia on 3 September 2007, in the United Kingdom by Harvill Secker on 6 September, and in the United States on 27 December.- Plot summary...
(2007) ISBN 1-846-55120-X
Fictionalised autobiography
- Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial LifeBoyhood: Scenes from Provincial LifeBoyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life is a fictionalised autobiographical work by J.M. Coetzee, and focuses on his years spent growing up in South Africa....
(1997) ISBN 0-14-026566-X - Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II (2002) ISBN 0-670-03102-X
- SummertimeSummertime (novel)Summertime is a 2009 novel by South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the third in a series of fictionalized memoirs by Coetzee and details the life of one John Coetzee from the perspective of five people who have known him...
(2009) ISBN 1-846-55318-0 - Scenes from Provincial Life (2011) ISBN 1-846-55485-3. An edited single volume of Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life, Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II, and Summertime.
Non-fiction
- White Writing: On the Culture of Letters in South Africa (1988) ISBN 0-300-03974-3
- Doubling the Point: Essays and Interviews (1992) ISBN 0-674-21518-4
- Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship (1996), University of Chicago PressUniversity of Chicago PressThe University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including Critical Inquiry, and a wide array of...
[hence, US spelling "offense"] ISBN 0-226-11176-8 - Stranger Shores: Literary Essays, 1986–1999 (2002) ISBN 0-142-00137-6
- Inner Workings: Literary Essays, 2000–2005 (2007) ISBN 0-099-50614-9
Translations and introductions
- A Posthumous Confession by Marcellus EmantsMarcellus EmantsMarcellus Emants , 14 October 1923) was a Dutch novelist who was one of the few examples of Dutch Naturalism. He is seen as a first step towards the renewing force of the Tachtigers towards modern Dutch literature, a movement which started around the 1880s...
(Boston: Twayne, 1976 & London: Quartet, 1986) Translated by J. M. Coetzee. - The Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenström (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1983 & London: Faber, 1984) Translated by J. M. Coetzee.
- Landscape with Rowers: Poetry from the Netherlands Translated and Introduced by J. M. Coetzee (2004) ISBN 0-691-12385-3
- Introduction to Robinson CrusoeRobinson CrusoeRobinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
by Daniel DefoeDaniel DefoeDaniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
(Oxford World's ClassicsOxford World's ClassicsOxford World's Classics is an imprint of Oxford University Press. First established in 1901 by Grant Richards and purchased by the Oxford University Press in 1906, this imprint publishes primarily dramatic and classic literature for students and the general public...
) ISBN 0-192-10033-5 - Introduction to Brighton Rock by Graham GreeneGraham GreeneHenry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
(Penguin Classics) ISBN 0-142-43797-2 - Introduction to Dangling ManDangling Man-Plot summary:Written in diary format, the story centers on the life of an unemployed young man named Joseph, his relationships with his wife and friends, and his frustrations with life. Living in Chicago and waiting to be drafted, the diary acts as a philosophical confessional for his musings...
by Saul BellowSaul BellowSaul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
(Penguin Classics) ISBN 0-143-03987-3 - Introduction to The VivisectorThe VivisectorThe Vivisector is the eighth published novel by Patrick White, winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature. First published in 1970, it details the lifelong creative journey of fictional artist/painter Hurtle Duffield...
by Patrick WhitePatrick WhitePatrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
(Penguin, 1999) ISBN 0-143-10567-1 - Introduction to The Confusions of Young TörlessThe Confusions of Young TörlessThe Confusions of Young Törless , the title of the novel is sometimes translated as Young Törless or Young Torless, is the literary debut of the Austrian novelist and essayist Robert Musil, first published in 1906.-Plot introduction:Musil's novel is ostensibly a Bildungsroman, a story of a young...
by Robert MusilRobert MusilRobert Musil was an Austrian writer. His unfinished long novel The Man Without Qualities is generally considered to be one of the most important modernist novels...
(Penguin Classics, 2001) ISBN 978-0142180006 - Introduction to Samuel Beckett: The Grove Centenary Edition vol. IV by Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, edited by Paul AusterPaul AusterPaul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...
(New York: Grove PressGrove PressGrove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1951. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United States. The Atlantic Monthly Press, under the aegis of its...
, 2006) ISBN 0-8021-1820-8
Book reviews
– Coetzee reviewsFilm and TV adaptations
- DustDust (1985 film)Dust is a 1985 film directed by Marion Hänsel based on the J. M. Coetzee novel In the Heart of the Country. The film was shot in Spain and is a French-Belgian production....
(1985), based on In the Heart of the CountryIn the Heart of the CountryIn the Heart of the Country is an English language novel by J. M. Coetzee which delves in the complex relationships that form between the colonizer and the colonized. It takes place on an isolate farm in South Africa told through the perspective of an unmarried white woman who takes care of her... - The Lives of Animals (2002)
- DisgraceDisgrace (film)Disgrace is an Australian film set in South Africa, adapted for the screen by Anna Maria Monticelli from the 1999 J. M. Coetzee novel, Disgrace...
(2008)
Further reading
- Stephen Mulhall, The Wounded Animal: J. M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy (Princeton, 2008).
External links
- J. M. Coetzee at the Nobel Prize Internet Archive
- Coetzee Nobel Prize Lecture
- Swedish Academy Press Release
- J. M. Coetzee in the New York Times Archives
- An academic blog about writing a dissertation on Coetzee
- Coetzee article archive from The New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
- Video: J. M. Coetzee speaks about fundamentalism, curiosity and Patrick Allington's Figurehead
- The Lives of Animals at The Tanner Lectures on Human values
- Video: J. M. Coetzee speaking at The University of Texas, Austin
- Video: J. M. Coetzee speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival