Synopses & Reviews
J.M. Coetzee and the Limits of Cosmopolitanism analyzes how J.M. Coetzee's later fiction tests current understandings of the promises and pitfalls of cosmopolitanism. Drawing on postcolonial and gender studies, as well as affect theory, the book interrogates cosmopolitan philosophies in which feeling cosmopolitan is equated with being cosmopolitan. The study proposes that Coetzee's writing questions both the desirability and inevitability of purportedly cosmopolitan feelings. It offers an alternative model of cosmopolitanism that challenges the supposition that cosmopolitanism requires the propagation of openness to others, or the proliferation of multiple attachments.
Review
"J. M. Coetzee and the Limits of Cosmopolitanism is remarkably accomplished, both as cultural philosophy and as literary criticism. With understated precision, Katherine Hallemeier gathers and critiques contemporary theories of cosmopolitanism, then puts them to the test in a series of discerning readings of J. M. Coetzee. In unpicking a few recent orthodoxies, she makes a refreshing contribution to Coetzee studies." - David Atwell, Professor of English, University of York, UK
"Fluid, salient and an original discussion of the affective politics of cosmopolitanism and the novels of J.M. Coetzee. Bringing together a rich range of historical and contemporary literatures on cosmopolitanism, emotion, and postcolonial fiction, Hallemeier's book moves beyond existing readings of Coetzee to argue incisively that his work provides the seeds of an alternative framework for cosmopolitanism that neither equates feeling with morality nor normalizes feelings as 'human.'" - Carolyn Pedwell, Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies, Newcastle University, UK, and author of Feminism, Culture and Embodied Practice: The Rhetorics of Comparison and Affective Relations: The Transnational Politics of Empathy
Synopsis
J.M. Coetzee and the Limits of Cosmopolitanism draws on postcolonial and gender studies as well as affect theory to interrogate cosmopolitan philosophies. Through analysis of J.M. Coetzee's later fiction, Katherine Hallemeier invites the re-imagining of co
Synopsis
Drawing on postcolonial and gender studies, as well as affect theory, the book interrogates cosmopolitan philosophies. Through analysis of J.M. Coetzee's later fiction, Hallemeier invites the re-imagining of cosmopolitanism, particularly as it is performed through the reading of literature.
About the Author
Katherine Hallemeier is Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Anglophone Literature in the Department of English at Oklahoma State University, USA.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Cosmopolitanism and Feeling
1: Sympathy and Cosmopolitanism
2: John Coetzee and Rational Cosmopolitanism
3: Elizabeth Costello and Affective Cosmopolitanism
4: Shame and Cosmopolitanism
5: J.M. Coetzee and Nonhuman Cosmopolitanism
Epilogue: Leave Taking