'Interpreting Others' assesses the way in which J. M. Coetzee's novels address the philosophical contest between humanism and antihumanism. The thesis highlights the opposing understandings of the...Show more'Interpreting Others' assesses the way in which J. M. Coetzee's novels address the philosophical contest between humanism and antihumanism. The thesis highlights the opposing understandings of the human subject exercised by the two perspectives. Specifically, it foregrounds the issue of the possibility of understanding other minds as a battleground in the humanism conflict and places this question in a literary and ethical context. A chapter each is dedicated to analyzing the ways this conflict is manifested in The Life & Times of Michael K, Disgrace, and Elizabeth Costello. The author uses the theories of Deborah Knight, who attempted to bridge the apparently intractable conflict between exponents of the humanist and antihumanist subjects, to explain Coetzee's position, which is argued to straddle both camps, demonstrating a thoughtful criticism of humanism which nevertheless remains attached to the humanist subject and the possibility of understanding between individuals.Show less
This thesis offers an ethical reading of J.M. Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus. Taking Derek Attridge’s concept of ‘the singularity of literature’ as its point of departure, it first discusses the...Show moreThis thesis offers an ethical reading of J.M. Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus. Taking Derek Attridge’s concept of ‘the singularity of literature’ as its point of departure, it first discusses the relation between literature and ethics. According to Attridge, the singularity of a literary work consists of its ‘transformative difference’. As such, the event of reading is a confrontation with the otherness of the text. It is precisely this confrontation that characterises responsible and ethical reading. Then it is argued that allegorical readings of The Childhood of Jesus cannot do justice to its singularity. Instead, the reading of the novel proposed here focuses on the notion of ‘responsibility’, suggesting that a focus on this concept increases the understanding of ethics in the novel. This analysis connects responsibility to four closely related aspects: its ground, the characters' worldview, the 'idea of the family', and the role of learning. By doing so, it demonstrates the possibilities of applying Attridge's theory to a work of literature, but it also shows its limitations.Show less
