The Cambridge Companion to J. M. Coetzee Cambridge Companions to Literature Series

Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee is amongst the most acclaimed and widely studied of contemporary authors. The Cambridge Companion to J. M. Coetzee provides a compelling introduction for new readers, as well as fresh perspectives and provocations for those long familiar with Coetzee's works. All of Coetzee's published novels and autobiographical fictions are discussed at length, and there is extensive treatment of his translations, scholarly books and essays, and volumes of correspondence. Confronting Coetzee's works on the grounds of his practice, the chapters address his craft, his literary relations and horizons, and the relationship between his writings and other arts, disciplines and institutions. Written by an international team of contributors, this Companion offers a comprehensive introduction to this important writer, establishes new avenues of discovery, and explains Coetzee's undiminished ability to challenge and surprise his readers with inventive works of striking power and intensity.

Introduction Jarad Zimbler; Part I. Forms: 1. Composition and craft: Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K David Attwell; 2. Scenes and settings: Foe, Boyhood, Youth, Slow Man Meg Samuelson; 3. Stories and narration: In the Heart of the Country, The Master of Petersburg, The Childhood of Jesus Jarad Zimbler; 4. Styles: Dusklands, Age of Iron, Disgrace, The Schooldays of Jesus David James; 5. Genres: Elizabeth Costello, Diary of a Bad Year, Summertime Derek Attridge; Part II. Relations: 6. Translations Jan Steyn; 7. Collaboration and correspondence Rachel Bower; 8. Criticism and scholarship Sue Kossew; 9. Influence and intertextuality Patrick Hayes; 10. Worlds, world-making, and Southern horizons Ben Etherington; Part III. Mediations: 11. Other arts and adaptations Michelle Kelly; 12. Philosophies Anthony Uhlmann; 13. Lives and archives Andrew Dean; 14. Publics and personas Andrew van der Vlies; Further reading; Index.

Jarad Zimbler is Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham and former Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at the University of Illinois, Chicago. His book, J. M. Coetzee and the Politics of Style (2014), was shortlisted for the 2016 University English Book Prize. He is editor, with Ben Etherington, of The Cambridge Companion to World Literature (Cambridge, 2018).