Admission Requirements
None.
Description
In this course we will study and discuss the work of J.M. Coetzee (1940, South Africa), twice the recipient of the prestigious Booker Prize. In 2003 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, which was a recognition for an oeuvre in which, according to the words of the jury, “[n]o two books ever follow the same recipe. Extensive reading reveals a recurring pattern, the downward spiralling journeys he considers necessary for the salvation of his characters. His protagonists are overwhelmed by the urge to sink but paradoxically derive strength from being stripped of all external dignity.” Coetzee’s novels can be read in a variety of ways by using certain approaches such as post-structuralist or postcolonial theory, or by placing them in a historical (South African) context, or by analysing them from the angle of ethics or religious belief. At the same time, Coetzee’s work seems to challenge the assumptions of any of such particular approaches. This course will try to do justice to the complexity and many-sidedness of Coetzee’s work, and will also include an analysis of his ‘rewritings’ of the literary canon.
Course Objectives
Based on the assumption that participants have already acquired the basic skills for the analysis of literary texts, that is, have a working knowledge of the instruments of textual analysis as well as of (post-)structuralist and postcolonial theory, this course aims to extend these skills. Students will be encouraged to share analytical and theoretical views on as well as ethical-religious approaches to the texts ascribed in class discussion including short presentations, and to focus research skills on a relevant subject of their own choice within the parameters of the course in the form of a final research paper.
Timetable
The timetable will be available from July 1 onwards on the Department website.
Mode of Instruction
Two-hour seminar per week.
Assessment
Weekly reading reports (10%)
An oral presentation and participation in the discussions in class (20%)
Final essay of approximately 4000 words (70%).
Blackboard
This course is not supported by Blackboard.
Reading list
The following novels by J.M. Coetzee: Dusklands; In the Heart of the Country; Waiting for the Barbarians; Life & Times of Michael K; Foe; Age of Iron; The Master of Petersburg; Disgrace; Elizabeth Costello; Slow Man ; Diary of a Bad Year.
F.M. Dostoyevsky, Devils (Oxford World’s Classics).
Registration
Students can register through uSis.
Contact information
English Department, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 103c. Phone: 071 527 2144, or mail: english@hum.leidenuniv.nl