Elizabeth Costello
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'' Elizabeth Costello'' is a 2003 novel by South African-born
Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...
J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Australia, AC Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL Order of Mapungubwe, OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 ...
. In this novel, Elizabeth Costello, a celebrated aging Australian writer, travels around the world and gives lectures on topics including the lives of animals and literary censorship. In her youth, Costello wrote ''The House on Eccles Street,'' a novel that re-tells
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
's '' Ulysses'' from the perspective of the protagonist's wife,
Molly Bloom Molly Bloom is a fictional character in the 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' by James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contribu ...
. Costello, becoming weary from old age, confronts her fame, which seems further and further removed from who she has become, and struggles with issues of belief, vegetarianism, sexuality, language and evil. Many of the lectures Costello gives are edited fragments that Coetzee had previously published. The lessons she delivers only tenuously speak to the work for which she is being honored. Of note, Elizabeth Costello is the main character in Coetzee's academic novel, '' The Lives of Animals'' (1999). A character named Elizabeth Costello also appears in Coetzee's 2005 novel '' Slow Man'' and Coetzee's 2011 short story ''Lies'' is about a woman with the last name Costello.


Summary

A renowned writer, Elizabeth Costello has to put up with a large number of various inconveniences. First of all, she is a sixty-six-year-old woman who has committed all her life to writing, often neglecting not only her own needs but her children in order to give all her strengths to her work. Due to the fact that her first novel is about women's liberation, her interviewers – usually women who write books about her – expect that she will be an energetic fighter for equality, who eagerly discusses the importance of a woman's role in modern society. They are extremely disappointed to see an elderly woman, who is sick and tired of discussing her first book. Accompanied by her son John, she comes to Pennsylvania to receive the Stowe Award. During her acceptance speech, she speaks about Kafka and the audience finds it difficult to follow her idea, for this kind of talk is not to their liking. It seems that there is a gap between her and her audience. Although public speaking becomes a challenge for her, she decides to take a cruise in which she is supposed to speak about realism. The applause she gets is unenthusiastic. Not only does the public not understand what she wants them to realize, but neither does her own family. Elizabeth's vegetarianism often provokes quarrels between her and her daughter-in-law. Her son is torn between love for his mother and difficulties in accepting her point of view. More often than not, he asks himself why she can't be just like any other elderly woman. The truth is that she doesn't know the answer herself. She speaks about the things people don't want to know, because she feels the need to do it. Elizabeth has a sister she hasn't seen for a long period of time. She lives in Africa and serves in the Marian Order. The sisters have very little in common. During a graduation ceremony that both sisters are invited to, Blanche criticizes the humanities. Their parting is bitter, for they know they will not see each other again. Blanche charges Elizabeth with choosing "the wrong Greeks", meaning that Blanche doesn't support the philosophical ideas her sister is so fond of. At the end of the novel, Elizabeth finds herself in a kind of limbo, which she can only escape by satisfactorily explaining her beliefs before a court. It's implied this is a purgatory-like stage of the afterlife. Her first attempt is a failure, for she tells the truth and states that she doesn't believe in anything. She then has another try, where she tells a fictional story that reveals a deeper appreciation of life, but the novel ends before she finds out whether she will succeed at passing through the gate.


Background philosophy

Elizabeth Costello frequently engages philosophers and their ideas. Among the philosophers mentioned by name are historical figures such as
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
, Porphyry,
Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
,
Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...
, René Descartes and
Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham (; 4 February Dual dating, 1747/8 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. 5 February 1748 Old Style and New Style dates, N.S.– 6 June 1832) was an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer regarded as the founder of mo ...
, as well as contemporary figures such as
Mary Midgley Mary Beatrice Midgley (' Scrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018) was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first b ...
, Tom Regan and
Thomas Nagel Thomas Nagel (; born July 4, 1937) is an American philosopher. He is the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 until his retirement in 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest ...
. In addition two minor characters, Elaine Marx and an academic named Arendt (whose first name is not mentioned) share surnames with the famous philosophers
Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
and
Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century. Her work ...
. The frequent allusions to philosophers have caused critics to debate whether there are philosophical themes in Coetzee's work and, if so, what they might be. Part of the debate has focused on similarities between ideas expressed by Coetzee's protagonist and the philosophy of Mary Midgley. Coetzee's protagonist for example is concerned with the moral status of animals, a subject Midgley addressed in her 1983 book ''Animals and Why They Matter''. Midgley has also criticized Marx and other philosophers for singling out one human attribute (in Marx's case, that of freely given labour) and proclaiming it to be the unique quality that elevates human life above that of animals. Midgley argues that this approach confuses a factual claim and a moral claim, and it has been suggested that ''Elizabeth Costello'' draws attention to the same shortcoming in Arendt. As one analysis of ''Elizabeth Costello'' puts it, “The problem with Marx’s view is that there are human activities in which people find considerable value, such as giving birth, that are capacities we share with animals. Similarly, there are some actions, such as committing suicide, that may be unique to human beings yet that we do not celebrate. Like Marx, Hannah Arendt lauds one particular human attribute, in her case our capacity to take part in a shared world of political speech and action, on the grounds that it is what separates us from animals. There is a certain casual brilliance in the way Coetzee extends Midgley’s critique of Marx to Arendt, whose philosophy is often thought to invert Marxism.”


''Is this the gate?'' (chamber opera)

The
chamber opera Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a Chamber music, chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra. Early 20th-century operas of this type include Paul Hindemith's ''Cardillac'' (1926). Earlier small-scale operas ...
''Is this the gate?'' by the composer Nicholas Lens with
libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...
by John M. Coetzee is based on the last chapter of the novel (first performance at the
Adelaide Festival The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...
2024,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
). After Slow Man (opera), the chamber opera ''Is this the gate?'' is the second co-operation between the opera composer Nicholas Lens and John M. Coetzee.


Reception

''Elizabeth Costello'' was generally well-received among British press. Globally, '' Complete Review'' saying on the consensus "No consensus (and considerable confusion about what Coetzee is doing), though most fairly favourable".


Distinctions

* 2003 longlisted for the
Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...
* 2004 shortlisted for the
Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the Will (law), will of Miles Franklin ...


References


External links

*


Reviews online

* * - Review of a chapter within ''Elizabeth Costello''. * * * *
Pdf view.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elizabeth Costello 2003 Australian novels Novels by J. M. Coetzee Novels about writers Books about animal rights Vegetarianism in fiction