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Coetzee, J. M.

Coetzee, J. M. (John Maxwell Coetzee) (kö'tsē) [key], 1940–, South African novelist, b. John Michael Coetzee. Educated at the Univ. of Cape Town (M.A. 1963) and the Univ. of Texas (Ph.D. 1969), he taught in the United States and returned home (1983) to become a professor of English literature at Cape Town. He immigrated to Australia in 2002, becoming a citizen there in 2006, and working as a research fellow at the Univ. of Adelaide. Several of Coetzee's novels are noted for their eloquent protest against political and social conditions in South Africa, particularly the suffering caused by imperialism, apartheid, and postapartheid violence. His books are also known for their technical virtuosity. Often melancholy and detached in tone and spare in style, his fiction treats themes of human violence and loss, weakness and defeat, and isolation and survival. His critically acclaimed novels include In the Heart of the Country (1977), Waiting for the Barbarians (1982), the two Booker (later Man Booker) Prize–winning novels, The Life and Times of Michael K (1983) and Disgrace (1999), The Master of Petersburg (1994), Elizabeth Costello (2003), Slow Man (2005), and Diary of a Bad Year (2007). The last three novels, written after his move to Australia, have had Australian settings and have shown a more pronounced philosophical orientation. Among Coetzee's other writings are the memoirs Boyhood (1997) and Youth (2002) and several essay collections, among them Inner Workings (2007), studies of 20 20th-century writers. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003.

See D. Attwell, ed., Doubling the Point: Essays and Interviews (1992); studies by D. Penner (1989), D. Attwell (1993), G. Huggan and S. Watson, ed. (1996), D. Head (1997), S. Kossew, ed. (1998), D. Attridge (2004), M. Canepari-Labib (2005), J. Poynter, ed. (2006), L. Sikorska, ed. (2006), and L. Wright (2006).