Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

182680

Embodied ghosts

Coetzee's realist modernism

Ana Falcato

pp. 71-97

Abstract

Philosophers writing on J. M. Coetzee's literary project have described it as "realist-modernist". This is due to a combination of the prose's stylistic features and more substantial issues developed in his novels. Coetzee's prose is extremely sober, compact, dry, and overtly self-conscious; it contains his reflections on features of the prose itself (a technique strongly associated with the great names of literary modernism) and on the historic-literary conflict between realism and modernism in the modern novel. In this paper, I discuss the relevance of Coetzee's use of the split page in Diary of a Bad Year, focusing on its role in undermining "ersatz ethical thought", and develop a model for explaining Coetzee's realist modernism. This model is situated within a broader, self-critical project that traces the significance of my analysis for the form of philosophical discourse.

Publication details

Published in:

Falcato Ana, Cardiello Antonio (2018) Philosophy in the condition of modernism. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 71-97

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-77078-9_4

Full citation:

Falcato Ana (2018) „Embodied ghosts: Coetzee's realist modernism“, In: A. Falcato & A. Cardiello (eds.), Philosophy in the condition of modernism, Dordrecht, Springer, 71–97.