Literary Criticism, General

Doubling the Point: Essays and Interviews

Name: Doubling the Point: Essays and Interviews
Author: J. M. Coetzee
ISBN: 9780674215184

by J. M. Coetzee, David Attwell (Editor), David Atwell

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Synopsis

Nadine Gordimer has written of J.M. Coetzee that his vision goes to the nerve-centre of being. What he finds there is more than most people will ever know about themselves, and he conveys it with a brilliant writer's mastery of tension and elegance. Doubling the Point takes the reader to the center of that vision. These essays and interviews, documenting Coetzee's longtime engagement with his own culture, and with modern culture in general, constitute a literary autobiography.

About the Author, J. M. Coetzee

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature to South African novelist J. M. Coetzee, a towering literary talent who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider. The Academy cited the astonishing wealth of variety in Coetzee s stories, many of which are set against the backdrop of apartheid.

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Editorials

Library Journal

Coetzee is known here for his fiction, set in his native South Africa, but less so for his criticism. This collection of essays should enhance his reputation. Coetzee examines such literary giants as Samuel Beckett (stylistically analyzing Watt via a computer-generated diagram in one essay), Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, D.H. Lawrence, and fellow South African writers Athol Fugard, Breyten Breytenbach, and Nadine Gordimer. Also included are sections on poetics, popular culture, syntax, and censorship. Atwell interviews Coetzee at the beginning of each section to complete a retrospective analysis of the essays; the result is a literary autobiography of stature. Recommended for academic as well as large public libraries.-- Ann Irvine, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Md.