Ebook: J.M. Coetzee and ethics: philosophical perspectives on literature

Part I. People, Human Relationships, and Politics -- The paradoxes of Power in the Early Novels of J.M. Coetzee / Robert Pippin -- Disgrace, Desire, and the Dark Side of the New South Africa / Adriaan van Heerden -- Ethical Thought and the Problem of Communication: A Strategy for Reading Diary of a Bad Year / Jonathan Lear -- Torture and Collective Shame / Jeff McMahan -- Part II. Humans, Animals, and Morality -- Converging Convictions: Coetzee and His Characters on Animals / Karen Dawn and Peter Singer -- Coetzee and Alternative Animal Ethics / Eilisa Aaltola -- Writing the Lives of Animals / Ido Geiger -- Sympathy and Scapegoating in H.M. Coetzee / Andy Lamey -- Part III. Rationality and Human Lives -- Against Society, Against History, Against Reason: Coetzee's Archaic Postmodernism / Anton Leist -- Coetzee's Critique of Reason / Martin Woessner -- J.M. Cietzee, Moral Thinker / Alice Crary -- Being True to Fact: Coetzee's Prose of the World / Pieter Vermeulen -- Part IV. Literature, Literary Style, and Philosophy -- Truth and Love Together at Last: Style, Form, and Moral vision in Age of Iron / Samantha Vice -- The Lives of Animals and the Form-Content Connection / Jennifer Flynn -- Irony and Belief in Elizabeth Costello / Michael Funk Deckard and Ralph Palm -- Coetzee's Hidden Polemic with Nietzsche / Alena Dvorakova.;In 2003, South African writer J.M. Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his riveting portrayals of racial repression, sexual politics, the guises of reason, and the hypocrisy of human beings toward animals and nature. Coetzee was credited with being ""a scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of western civilization."" The film of his novel Disgrace, starring John Malkovich, brought his challenging ideas to a new audience. Anton Leist and Peter Singer have assembled an outstanding group of contributors.