Père-versions of the Truth. The Novels of J. M. Coetzee. Expanded Second Edition
Père-versions of the Truth. The Novels of J. M. Coetzee. Expanded Second Edition

Author(s): Sławomir Masłoń
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature, Psychoanalysis, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: novels; J.M. Coetzee; politics; narration; existence; humanist discourse; psychoanalytic theory
Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the book is to approach J.M. Coetzee’s novelistic output from a different perspective than the one that was usually embraced by the majority of critics. The common practice, which is in any case elicited by this output, is orientation from the “humanist” position, criticising the excesses of colonialism and confronting violence with existential problems of Man on the path to the Truth and self-realisation. Even though in today’s world the authority of universalia such as Man and Truth was severely undermined, for it may be perceived as something which always serves somebody’s interests, it seems that Coetzee created for his own purpose a writer’s method in which the basic features of a humanist novel may be retained and which at the same time attempts to defend itself against accusations of involvement in the interplay of violence and interests. In order to demonstrate the political, narration-related and existential consequences of the attitudes embraced by the protagonists of such a modernised humanist novel, the book analyses seven novels by Coetzee, and the premises of humanist discourse which are contained in these novels were confronted with the selected concepts of the psychoanalytic theory, especially the concepts of Jacques Lacan and their political application conducted by Slavoj Žižek. The second edition of the book was enhanced by a chapter which discusses three pseudo-autobiographical novels by Coetzee and a chapter which analyses “The Lives of Animals” by this author – a sort of metafiction devoted to animal rights.

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