AustLit

'The theme of womanizing has attracted much critical commentary – and speculation – in discussions of Coetzee’s writing. In this paper, however, I discuss an earlier, now obsolete meaning of ‘womanizing’, not as a theme, but as a distinctive fictional device that opens up different ways of reading Coetzee’s women. Alongside the colloquial contemporary meaning of consorting (illicitly) with women, the Oxford English Dictionary expands on earlier meanings of the word ‘womanizing’: ‘to make a woman of’, ‘to become womanlike’. This paper thinks through Coetzee’s narrative strategy of ‘womanizing’ with reference to these lesser-known meanings of the word. The paper ends with a brief philosophical reflection on two of Coetzee’s critical essays: ‘Fictional Beings’ and ‘Thematizing’ – to explore the implications of the dyad: theme/thematizing; woman/womanizing.' (Publication abstract)

'Clarkson pays sustained attention to the dynamic interaction between Coetzee's fiction and his critical writing, exploring the Nobel prize-winner's participation in, and contribution to, contemporary literary-philosophical debates. The book sets out by examining Coetzee's preoccupation with language, and opens onto a consideration of the ethical and aesthetic implications of the writer's linguistic choices. What is ethically at stake in the decision to write in the third person, or in playing up the etymologies of words? In what ways do seemingly innocent linguistic decisions have ethical and aesthetic consequences for the position of the speaking or writing self in relation to those whom one addresses, or in relation to those on whose behalf one speaks, or in relation to a world one attempts to represent or create in writing? Questions such as these arise throughout Coetzee's oeuvre, especially in relation to further reflections on notions of the writer's authority and authorial commitments.' (Publisher's summary)