J. M. Coetzee's Poetics of the Child: Arendt, Agamben, and the (Ir)responsibilities of Literary Creation

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Tracing how central tensions in J.M. Coetzees fiction converge in and are made visible by the child figure, this book establishes the centrality of the child to Coetzees poetics. Through readings of novels from Dusklands to The Schooldays of Jesus, Charlotta Elmgren shows how Coetzees writing stages the constant interplay between irresponsibility and responsibilityto the self, the other, and the world. In articulating this poetics of (ir)responsibility, Elmgren offers the first sustained engagement with the intersections between Coetzees work and the philosophical thought of Giorgio Agamben. With reference also to Hannah Arendts thinking on natality, education, and amor mundi, Elmgren demonstrates the inextricable links in Coetzees writing between freedom, play, and serious attention to the world. The book identifies five central dynamics of Coetzees poetics: the child as a figure of truth-telling and authenticity; the ethics of the not-so-other child; the child, new beginnings and care for the world; childish behaviour as perpetual study; and the redemptive potential of infancy. Offering a fresh contribution to the field of literary childhood studies, Elmgren shows the critical possibilities in thinking aboutand withchildlike openness and childish experimentation when approaching the writing and reading of the work of J.M. Coetzee and beyond.

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In an assured and insightful reading of J.M. Coetzees entire oeuvre, Charlotta Elmgren shows convincingly that the child-figure is central to Coetzees fiction-makingnot only as subject, but as an essential feature of his ars poetica. * David Attwell, Professor of Modern Literature, University of York, UK *

Author Bio

Charlotta Elmgren is a researcher and teacher at the Department of English Language and Literature at Stockholm University, Sweden.