J.M. Coetzee
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John Maxwell Coetzee AC
FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...
OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature, Coetzee is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the
English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
. He has won the Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Literary Award (thrice), the
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 Forum (previously kn ...
, the Prix Femina étranger, and ''
The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...
'' International Fiction Prize, and holds a number of other awards and honorary doctorates. Coetzee moved to Australia in 2002 and became an Australian citizen in 2006. He lives in
Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
,
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
. He is patron of the J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the
University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...
. His most recently published book is '' The Pole and Other Stories'' (2023).


Early life and education

Coetzee was born in
Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
,
Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope (), commonly referred to as the Cape Province () and colloquially as The Cape (), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Co ...
,
Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa (; , ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day South Africa, Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the British Cape Colony, Cape, Colony of Natal, Natal, Tra ...
, on 9 February 1940 to
Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopæd ...
parents. His father, Zacharias Coetzee (1912–1988), was an occasional attorney and government employee, and his mother, Vera Coetzee (née Wehmeyer; 1904–1986), a schoolteacher. His father was often absent, and enlisted in the army and fought in World War II to avoid being prosecuted on a criminal charge. Vera and her children therefore relied on financial and other support from relatives. The family mainly spoke English at home, but Coetzee spoke
Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
with other relatives. He is descended from 17th-century Dutch immigrants to South Africa, (the origin of the name Coetzee) on his father's side, and from Dutch, German, and Polish immigrants through his mother. "His maternal great-grandfather was born in Czarnylas, Poland" His mother's grandfather was a Pole, referred to by the Germanised form, Balthazar du Biel, but actually born Balcer Dubiel in 1844 in the village of Czarnylas (Schwarzwald), in a part of Poland annexed by
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
. His ancestry caused a lifelong preoccupation with Polish literature and culture, culminating in his 2022 novel ''The Pole''. Coetzee spent most of his early life in Cape Town and in Worcester, a town in the Cape Province (modern-day
Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...
), as recounted in his fictionalised memoir, '' Boyhood'' (1997). His family moved to Worcester when he was eight, after his father lost his government job. Coetzee attended St. Joseph's College, a
Catholic school Catholic schools are Parochial school, parochial pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest parochial schools, religious, no ...
in the Cape Town suburb Rondebosch. He studied mathematics and English at the
University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...
(UCT), receiving a Bachelor of Arts with honours in English in 1960 and a Bachelor of Arts with honours in mathematics in 1961. Coetzee moved to the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
in 1962 and worked as a
computer programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a progr ...
for
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and ICT (International Computers and Tabulators) in Bracknell, staying until 1965. His experiences in England are recounted in ''
Youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood (Maturity (psychological), maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as bei ...
'' (2002), his second volume of fictionalised memoirs. In 1963, the
University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...
awarded Coetzee a
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
degree for his thesis ''The Works of
Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...
with Particular Reference to the Novels'' (1963).


Academia


United States

In 1965, Coetzee went to the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
in the United States and enrolled in
bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...
and
Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
courses. While there, he taught students at the university, and also wrote a paper on the morphology of the Nama, Malay, and
Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of languages by total number of speak ...
s for linguist Archibald A. Hill, who taught at the university. His PhD dissertation was a computer-aided stylistic analysis of the English prose of
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
. After leaving Texas in 1968, he was awarded his
doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
in 1969. In 1968, Coetzee began teaching English literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he stayed until 1971. At Buffalo, he began his first novel, '' Dusklands''. From as early as 1968, Coetzee sought permanent residence in the U.S., a process that was finally unsuccessful, in part due to his involvement in protests against the war in Vietnam. In March 1970, he was one of 45 faculty members who occupied the university's Hayes Hall and were arrested for criminal trespass. The charges against them were dropped in 1971.


University of Cape Town

In 1972, Coetzee returned to South Africa and was appointed lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature at the
University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...
. He was promoted to senior lecturer and associate professor before becoming Professor of General Literature in 1984. In 1994 Coetzee became Arderne Professor in English, and in 1999 he was appointed Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Humanities. Upon retirement in 2002, he was awarded
emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...
status. He served on the Committee on Social Thought at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
until 2003.


Adelaide

After relocating to Adelaide, Australia, Coetzee was made an honorary research fellow at the English Department of the
University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...
, where his partner, Dorothy Driver, is a fellow academic. , Coetzee is listed as University Professorial Research Fellow within the School of Humanities


Writing career

Coetzee's first novel was '' Dusklands'' (1974), and he has published a novel about every three years since. He has also written autobiographical novels, short fiction, translations from Dutch and
Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
, and numerous essays and works of criticism. His latest work is '' The Pole and Other Stories'' (2023). He has not written a novel set in South Africa since 2009. According to James Meek, writing in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' in 2009: "Since ''Disgrace'', the nature of Coetzee's project has changed. He has moved away from naturalistic, storytelling fiction towards other forms—essays, polemic and memoir, or a composite of all three in a fictional framework... eseems to be taking less interest in the storytelling keel of his books and is inviting us instead to listen in to an intimate conversation he is having with himself, in the form of multiple alter egos". These alter egos include a character type represented by the magistrate in '' Waiting for the Barbarians'' and David Lurie in '' Disgrace''; another is a female proxy for himself, the "elderly, scholarly, world-weary novelist" Elizabeth Costello, a recurring character in his works; and the last is Coetzee himself, writing autobiographically. Meek also remarks that Coetzee is harsh on himself, in the characters who represent him in some ways. Relating to his developing interest in Argentine literature in the 2010s, Coetzee's trilogy of novels '' The Childhood of Jesus'', '' The Schooldays of Jesus'', and '' The Death of Jesus'' reflect his preoccupation with and evolution of his ideas and views on language ("I do not like the way in which English is taking over the world... I don't like the arrogance that this situation breeds in its native speakers. Therefore, I do what little I can to resist the hegemony of the English language"). All three were translated into Spanish, with the last published in Spanish translation first. He also became involved with the Literatures of the South project during this period (2015). ''The Pole'' was first published in Spanish as ''El polaco'', in Argentina, in 2022, and in English the next year.


Awards, recognition, appearances

Coetzee is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the
English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
. He has received numerous awards throughout his career, although he has a reputation for avoiding award ceremonies.


1983 and 1999 Booker Prizes

Coetzee was the first writer to be awarded the Booker Prize twice: for '' Life & Times of Michael K'' in 1983, and for '' Disgrace'' in 1999. , three other authors have achieved this, Peter Carey,
Hilary Mantel Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...
, and
Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...
. '' Summertime'', named on the 2009 longlist, was an early favourite to win Coetzee an unprecedented third Booker Prize. It made the shortlist, but lost to bookmakers' favourite '' Wolf Hall'', by Mantel. Coetzee was also longlisted in 2003 for '' Elizabeth Costello'' and in 2005 for '' Slow Man''. '' The Schooldays of Jesus'', a follow-up to his 2013 novel '' The Childhood of Jesus'', was longlisted for the 2016 Booker Prize.


2003 Nobel Prize in Literature

On 2 October 2003, the Swedish Academy announced that Coetzee had been chosen as that year's recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
, making him the fourth 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 Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
on 10 December 2003.


Other awards and recognition

Coetzee is a three-time winner of South Africa's CNA Literary Award (in 1977, 1980 and 1983). His '' Waiting for the Barbarians'' received both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, '' Age of Iron'' was awarded the '' Sunday Express'' Book of the Year award, and '' The Master of Petersburg'' was awarded ''
The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...
'' International Fiction Prize in 1995. He has also won the French Prix Femina étranger and two Commonwealth Writers' Prizes for the African region, for ''Master of St Petersburg'' in 1995 and for ''Disgrace'' in 2000 (the latter personally presented by
Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
at
Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...
), and the 1987
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 Forum (previously kn ...
for the Freedom of the Individual in Society. In 1998, he received the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction. In 1984, Coetzee received an Honorary Fellow Award at the University of Cape Town. He was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...
(FRSL) in 1988. In 2001 he won the Outstanding Alumnus award at the University of Texas. In 2004, he was made Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. On 27 September 2005, the South African government awarded Coetzee the Order of Mapungubwe (gold class) for his "exceptional contribution in the field of literature and for putting South Africa on the world stage". In 2006, he was elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
. He holds honorary doctorates from The American University of Paris (2010), the University of Adelaide (2005),
La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...
, the
University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu- ...
(1996), the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, Rhodes University, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Strathclyde, the University of Technology, Sydney, the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, and the
Universidad Iberoamericana The Ibero-American University (), also referred to by its acronym ''UIA'' but commonly known as ''Ibero'' or ''La Ibero'', is a private, Catholic, Mexican higher education institution, sponsored by the Mexican province of the Society of Jesus ( ...
. In 2013, Richard Poplak of the '' Daily Maverick'' called Coetzee "inarguably the most celebrated and decorated living English-language author". On 9 June 2025 Coetzee was appointed a
Companion of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...
(AC).


Adelaide

Coetzee first visited Adelaide in 1996, when he was invited to appear at Adelaide Writers' Week. He made subsequent appearances at the festival in 2004, 2010 (when he introduced Geoff Dyer), and 2019 (when he introduced Marlene van Niekerk). In 2004, the Lord Mayor of Adelaide handed Coetzee the keys to the city. In 2010, Coetzee was made an international ambassador for Adelaide Writers' Week, along with American novelist Susanna Moore and English poet Michael Hulse. Coetzee is patron of the J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice (JMCCCP), a research centre and cultural hub founded at the University of Adelaide in 2015. The centre runs workshops with the aim of providing "a stimulating environment for emerging and established writers, scholars and musicians". Coetzee's work provides particular inspiration to encourage engagement with social and political issues, as well as music. The centre was established in 2015. In November 2014, Coetzee was honoured with a three-day
academic conference An academic conference or scientific conference (also congress, symposium, workshop, or meeting) is an Convention (meeting), event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic jou ...
, "JM Coetzee in the World", in Adelaide. It was called "the culmination of an enormous collaborative effort and the first event of its kind in Australia" and "a reflection of the deep esteem in which John Coetzee is held by Australian academia". From 9 to 10 November 2023, a celebration of Nobel Prize in Literature anniversaries, commemorating the winning of the prize by Coetzee in 2003 and Patrick White in 1973, was organised by the head of JMCCCP, Anne Pender, and held by the University of Adelaide. The program included several events over two days, including readings in the reading room of the Barr Smith Library by Coetzee,
Christos Tsiolkas Christos Tsiolkas is an Australian author, playwright, and screenwriter. He is especially known for '' The Slap'', which was both well-received critically and highly successful commercially. Several of his books have been adapted for film and t ...
, Patrick Flanery, Helen Garner, Brian Castro, and others; music by Anna Goldsworthy and Paul Grabowsky; and screenings of '' Disgrace'' and '' The Eye of the Storm'', which included talks by the filmmakers, at the Palace Nova Eastend Cinema.


Views


South Africa

According to Fred Pfeil, Coetzee, André Brink and
Breyten Breytenbach Breyten Breytenbach (; 16 September 193924 November 2024) was a South African writer, poet, and painter. He became internationally well-known as a dissident poet and vocal critic of South Africa under apartheid, and as a political prisoner of ...
were 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 added, "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", and called on the South African government to abandon its apartheid policy. The scholar Isidore Diala wrote that Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, and 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 A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...
(TRC). Asked about his views on the TRC, Coetzee said, "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". After his Australian citizenship ceremony, Coetzee said: "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 moved to Australia, Coetzee cited the South African government's lax attitude to crime in that country as a reason, leading to a spat with
Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Cong ...
, who said, "South Africa is not only a place of rape", referencing Coetzee's ''Disgrace''. In 1999, the
African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...
's submission to a South African Human Rights Commission investigation into racism in the media said that ''Disgrace'' depicted racist stereotypes. When Coetzee won the Nobel Prize, Mbeki congratulated him "on behalf of the South African nation and indeed the continent of Africa".


Politics

Coetzee has never specified any political orientation nor overtly criticised
apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
, though he has alluded to politics in his work, especially the part that language plays in supporting the political and social structures of colonialism and nationalism. South African author Nadine Gordimer suggested that Coetzee had "a revulsion against all political and revolutionary solutions", and he has been both praised for his condemnation of racism in his writing and criticised for not explicitly denouncing apartheid. Writing about his past in the third person, Coetzee wrote in ''Doubling the Point'': Asked about the latter part of this quote in an interview, Coetzee answered: "There is no longer a left worth speaking of, and a language of the left. The language of politics, with its new economistic bent, is even more repellent than it was 15 years ago". In February 2016, Coetzee was one of 61 signatories to a letter to Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and immigration minister Peter Dutton condemning their government's policy of offshore detention of asylum seekers. In May 2016, Coetzee attended the Palestine Festival of Literature; on the closing night, he gave a brief speech, in which he said: "I was born and brought up in South Africa and so naturally people ask me what I see of South Africa in the present situation in Palestine. Using the word 'apartheid' to describe the way things are here I've never found to be a productive step. Like using the word ' genocide' to describe what happened in Turkey in the 1920s, using the word 'apartheid' diverts one into the inflamed semantic wrangle, which cuts short the opportunities of analysis." But, he added, "In
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
and in the
West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
—to speak only of Jerusalem and the West Bank—we've seen a system of enforced segregation based on religion and ethnicity, put in place by an exclusive, self-defined group to consolidate the colonial conquest, in particular to maintain and, indeed, extend its hold on the land and its natural resources. Draw your own conclusions."


Law

In 2005, Coetzee criticised contemporary anti-terrorism laws as resembling those of South Africa's apartheid regime: "I used to think that the people who created outh Africa'slaws 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 book '' Diary of a Bad Year'', 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 Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from d ...
from fictional narrative", shares similar concerns about the policies of John Howard and
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
.


Animals

In recent years, Coetzee has become a vocal critic of
cruelty to animals Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction of suffering or Injury, harm by humans upon animals, either by omission (neglect) or by commission. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm ...
and an advocate of
animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...
. In a speech given on his behalf by Hugo Weaving in Sydney on 22 February 2007, Coetzee railed against the modern
animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, animal fiber, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising ...
industry. The speech was for
Voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
, an Australian nonprofit animal protection organization of which Coetzee became a patron in 2004. Coetzee's fiction has similarly engaged with animal cruelty and animal welfare, especially '' The Lives of Animals'', ''Disgrace'', ''Elizabeth Costello'', and ''The Old Woman and the Cats''. He is a
vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...
. In 2008, at the behest of
John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, Literary adaptation, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Marcel Proust, Proust, via Vladimir Nabokov, Nabokov", ...
, who alerted him to the matter, Coetzee wrote to ''
The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...
'' of his opposition to
Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
's use of
vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for Animal test ...
on animals for scientific research. He wrote: "I support the sentiments expressed by John Banville. There is no good reason—in fact, there has never been any good reason, scientific or pedagogical—to require students to cut up living animals. Trinity College brings shame on itself by continuing with the practice." Nearly nine years later, when TCD's continued (and, indeed, increasing) practice of vivisection featured in the news, a listener to the RTÉ Radio 1 weekday afternoon show ''
Liveline ''Liveline'' is an Republic of Ireland, Irish radio interview and phone-in chat show broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 each weekday afternoon between 13.45 and 15.00. The programme, which has been presented since 1999 by Joe Duffy, and is known for its ...
'' pointed out that Banville had previously raised the matter but been ignored. Banville then telephoned ''Liveline'' to call the practice "absolutely disgraceful" and recalled how his and Coetzee's efforts to intervene had been to no avail: "I was passing by the front gates of Trinity one day and there was a group of mostly young women protesting and I was interested. I went over and I spoke to them and they said that vivisection experiments were being carried out in the college. This was a great surprise to me and a great shock, so I wrote a letter of protest to ''The Irish Times''. Some lady professor from Trinity wrote back essentially saying Mr. Banville should stick to his books and leave us scientists to our valuable work." Asked if he received any other support for his stance in the letter he sent to ''The Irish Times'', Banville replied, "No. I became entirely dispirited and I thought, 'Just shut up, John. Stay out of it because I'm not going to do any good'. If I had done any good I would have kept it on. I mean, I got John Coetzee—you know, the famous novelist J. M. Coetzee—I got him to write a letter to ''The Irish Times''. I asked a lot of people." Coetzee wanted to be a candidate in the 2014 European Parliament election for the Dutch
Party for the Animals The Party for the Animals ( , PvdD) is a List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals are animal rights and animal welfare. The PvdD was founded in 2002 as a single-issue party for animal ...
, but the Dutch election board rejected his candidacy, arguing that candidates had to prove legal residence in the European Union.


Literatures of the South

In the early 1960s, while in London, Coetzee studied Spanish, and from 2015 to 2018, Coetzee was a director of a biannual seminar series on the Literatures of the South at the Universidad Nacional de San Martín in Argentina. This involved writers and literary figures from Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and South America. The aim of the seminars, one observer remarked, was "to develop comparative perspectives on the literature" and journalism of the three areas, "to establish new intellectual networks, and to build a corpus of translated works from across the South through collaborative publishing ventures". He developed an interest in Argentine literature, and curated a series for the publishing house El Hilo de Ariadna, which includes Tolstoy's '' The Death of Ivan Ilyich'',
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
's ''
Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
'', and Patrick White's '' The Solid Mandala''. His trilogy of novels '' The Childhood of Jesus'', '' The Schooldays of Jesus'', and '' The Death of Jesus'' reflect his preoccupation and evolution of ideas and views on language. At the same time, he was involved in a research project in Australia, Other Worlds: Forms of World Literature, for which he led a theme on "Everyday Pleasures" that is also focused on the literatures of the South. Coetzee chose to publish ''The Schooldays of Jesus'' and ''The Death of Jesus'' in Australia, and ''The Pole'' in Argentina, before they were published in the U.K. or the U.S. In an interview with ''El Pais'', he said, "the symbolism of publishing in the South before the North is important to me".


Copyright/piracy

When asked in 2015 to address unofficial Iranian translations of foreign works — Iran does not recognize international copyright agreements — Coetzee stated his disapproval of the practice on moral grounds and wished to have it sent to journalistic organisations in that country.


List of works


Novels

* '' Dusklands'' (1974), * '' In the Heart of the Country'' (1977), * '' Waiting for the Barbarians'' (1980), * '' Life & Times of Michael K'' (1983), * '' Foe'' (1986), * '' Age of Iron'' (1990), * '' The Master of Petersburg'' (1994), * '' Disgrace'' (1999), * '' Elizabeth Costello'' (2003), * '' Slow Man'' (2005), * '' Diary of a Bad Year'' (2007), * '' The Childhood of Jesus'' (2013), * '' The Schooldays of Jesus'' (2016), * '' The Death of Jesus'' (2019), * '' The Pole and Other Stories'' (2023), ; note: published in the USA as ''The Pole'' (2023)


Autobiographical novels

* '' Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life'' (1997), * '' Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II'' (2002), * '' Summertime'' (2009), * ''Scenes from Provincial Life'' (2011), ; an edited single volume of ''Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life'', ''Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II'', and ''Summertime''


Short fiction

* '' The Lives of Animals'' (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999) * ''Three Stories'' (Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2014) * ''Siete cuentos morales'' (Barcelona: El Hilo de Ariadna/Literatura Random House, 2018)


Articles and lectures

* - review of '' No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison'' by
Behrouz Boochani Behrouz Boochani (; born 23 July 1983) is a Iranian Kurdistan, Kurdish-Iranian journalist, human rights defender, writer and film producer living in New Zealand. He was held in the Australian-run Manus Regional Processing Centre, Manus Island d ...
(and other commentary relating to the Australian government's treatment of asylum seekers)
The Lives of Animals
delivered for The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Princeton, 1997
"A Word from J. M. Coetzee"
address read by Hugo Weaving at the opening of the exhibition "Voiceless: I Feel Therefore I Am" by ''Voiceless: The Animal Protection Institute'', 22 February 2007, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, Australia


Personal life


Non-literary activities

Coetzee was a key figure in the establishment of Oak Tree Press's ''First Chapter Series'' in 2006. The series produces limited-edition signed works by literary greats to raise money for the child victims and orphans of the African HIV/AIDS crisis.


Personal identity and public image

Coetzee has mentioned a number of literary figures who, like him, have tried "to transcend their national and historical contexts":
Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...
,
Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...
,
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
,
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 ...
, T. S. Eliot,
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
, and Zbigniew Herbert—outsiders to Western culture who moved countries and/or wrote in different languages. He has said, "as a child, as a young man, as a student, I had absolutely no doubt that access to the English language was liberating me from the narrow world view of the Afrikaner", and "I have a good command of English, spoken and written, but more and more it feels to me like the kind of command that a foreigner might have". He has written about his feeling of being an "outsider", such as his experience of being a colonial when living in London, which he writes about in ''Youth'', and characters in his novels have sometimes been outsiders. On 6 March 2006, Coetzee became an Australian citizen, and it has been argued that his "acquired 'Australianness' is deliberately adopted and stressed" by Australians. Coetzee is generally reluctant to speak about himself and his work, but has written about himself in several autobiographical novels (''Boyhood'', ''Youth'', and ''Summertime''). He has been described as reclusive, avoiding publicity to such an extent that he did not collect either of his two Booker Prizes in person. The South African writer Rian Malan, in oft-quoted words from an article published in the ''
New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...
'' in 1999, called Coetzee "a man of almost monkish self-discipline and dedication", and reported—based on hearsay—that he rarely laughed or even spoke. Asked about these comments in an email interview, Coetzee replied: "I have met Rian Malan only once in my life. He does not know me and is not qualified to talk about my character".


Family

Coetzee married Philippa Jubber in 1963. They divorced in 1980. They had a son, Nicolas (born 1966), and a daughter, Gisela (born 1968). Nicolas died in 1989 at the age of 23 after accidentally falling from the balcony of his
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
apartment. Coetzee's younger brother, the journalist David Coetzee, died in 2010. His partner, Dorothy Driver, is an academic at the
University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...
.


See also

* List of African writers *
List of animal rights advocates Advocates of animal rights believe that many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as in avoiding suffering—should be afforded ...
* List of vegetarians


Footnotes


References


Further reading

* * *
J. M. Coetzee
- reviews of Coetzee's novels at ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' * * *


External links

* * *


Videos

* , at the Swedish Academy, Stockholm * {{DEFAULTSORT:Coetzee, J. M. 1940 births Living people 20th-century Australian male writers 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century South African male writers 20th-century South African novelists 20th-century translators 21st-century Australian male writers 21st-century Australian novelists 21st-century linguists 21st-century South African male writers 21st-century South African novelists 21st-century translators Academic staff of the University of Cape Town Afrikaans–English translators Afrikaner anti-apartheid activists Afrikaner people Animal rights scholars Australian atheists Australian essayists Australian male novelists Australian Nobel laureates Australian opera librettists Australian people of Dutch descent Australian people of German descent Australian people of Polish descent Booker Prize winners Companions of the Order of Australia Dutch–English translators Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature IBM employees James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Jerusalem Prize recipients Linguists from Australia Linguists from South Africa Members of the American Philosophical Society Naturalised citizens of Australia Nobel laureates in Literature Postmodern writers Prix Femina Étranger winners Recipients of the Delmira Agustini Medal South African atheists South African emigrants to Australia South African expatriates in the United States South African male novelists South African Nobel laureates South African people of Dutch descent South African people of German descent South African people of Polish descent South African translators State University of New York faculty The New Yorker people University at Buffalo faculty University of Cape Town alumni University of Chicago faculty University of Texas at Austin alumni Writers from Cape Town