Stranger Shores – J.M. Coetzee
John Maxwell Coetzee or J.M. Coetzee is without doubt one of
the foremost writers of the twentieth centuries. Hailing from South Africa he
has to his credit been the first person to win the Man Booker Prize twice (Disgrace, Life and Times of Michael K.) and
also being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. What we find out in
this collection of essays on literary criticism is that he is an accomplished
and erudite critic as well.
Stranger Shores is his fourth collection of literary essays, which analyses
a number of authors and their literary output and then some extra topics as
well. Coetzee takes us on an intellectual journey across so many “shores” of
thought, it is mind-boggling at times. But what shines through it all is the
awareness of Coetzee's sophisticated
handling of the interplay of colonialism, censorship, authorship and history in
every one of his essays in this collection.
In the 26 essays included here -- concentrating on major
20th-century authors like Franz Kafka, Joseph Brodsky, Jorge Luis Borges,
Salman Rushdie, A. S. Byatt, Naguib Mahfouz, Doris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer –
he outlines the forces at work that have motivated their written output, and
gives an amazing overview of the author’s lives that we get plenty of insights
into how they became writers in the first place and what motivates their
novels.
This collection begins with the essay titled ‘What is a
Classic?’. Coetzee's argument is that 'the classic defines itself by
surviving'. This doesn't mean that the greatness of the 'classic' should go
unquestioned. Rather, it means that such works prove themselves 'classic'
precisely by being questioned. He then proceeds to dissect the literary
predecessors like Daniel Defoe’s Robinson
Crusoe (Coetzee has himself written a very powerful retelling of this novel
in his book called Foe) and Samuel
Richardson’s Pamela, before he
explores the works of writers across the length and breadth of the anglophile
literary world – from writers from Netherlands (Marcellus Emants, Harry
Mulisch, Cess Nooteboom) , German
multi-lingual poet Rilke (who denied the German part of his identity throughout
his life), Franz Kafka’s translations to lesser known writers like Robert Musil
(Austrian) Josef Skvorecky (Czech), Caryl Phillips (Kittian English), Aharon
Appelfield etc…. to very enlightening (almost biographical sketches) essays on
famous literary giants such as Dostoevsky, Dorris Lessing, Salman Rushdie and
J.L. Borges).
The content of each of his essays is quite complicated to
briefly state here, but it is suffice to say that these essays will make us
realize how limited our purview of English literature could be if we adhere to
an insular education and reading of literature. It definitely also led me to
wonder at how he is possibly reading so much! And he is well-versed in multiple
languages too. No doubt it comes in handy.
Overall it is a quite a densely packed collection of essays,
focusing on literary criticism and theoretical analysis at its core. So it
mostly would appeal only to a limited reading audience who should find it
insightful.
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