The Wounded Animal: J. M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy

272 Pages·2008·1.23 MB·English

by  Stephen Mulhall

THE WOUNDED ANIMAL
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THE WOUNDED ANIMAL
J. M. COETZEE AND THE DIFFICULTY OF REALITY
IN LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY
STEPHEN MULHALL
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright(cid:148)2009byPrincetonUniversityPress
PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet,
Princeton,NewJersey08540
IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,6OxfordStreet,
Woodstock,OxfordshireOX201TW
AllRightsReserved
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Mulhall,Stephen,1962–
Thewoundedanimal:J.M.Coetzeeandthedifficultyofrealityin
literatureandphilosophy/StephenMulhall.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-691-13736-0(cloth:alk.paper)
ISBN978-0-691-13737-7(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Coetzee,J.M.,1940—Criticismandinterpretation.
2.Coetzee,J.M.,1940—Philosophy.3.Philosophyinliterature.
4.Animals(Philosophy)5.Literature—Philosophy.I.Title.
PR9369.3.C58Z862009
823(cid:99)14—dc22 2008015470
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable
ThisbookhasbeencomposedinSabon
Printedonacid-freepaper.(cid:102)
press.princeton.edu
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Istillbelievethatnogoodjokeiseverracist.AndIbelieveitforthesame
reasons that I believe no good play or novel is ever racist, regardless of
the politics of its author. The discourse of racism is bald, monotonous,
unquestioning,single-voicedanddesolate.Art,whenitisgood...isnone
of those things. Art is dramatic, and by dramatic I mean that it holds
everythinginoppositionandsuspense.
Themomentartforgetsitisdramaticandgrowstendentious,themo-
ment it begins to formulate a programme for the amelioration of man-
kind,orforspreadingfaithordisbelief,orforpromotingracialdisquiet
orracialharmony,itceasestobeart.Andagoodjokebelongstoart.Call
italittlenovel,comprisingvoicesatintellectualandmoraloddswithone
another, taking you by surprise and told, vertiginously, by a narrator it
wouldnotbewiseofyoutotrust.
Thusinart,domattersofmoralitywaituponaesthetics.
HowardJacobson
Thewoundedisthewoundingheart.
RichardCrashaw
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CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS ix
CHAPTERONE
Introduction:TheAncientQuarrel 1
PARTONE:THELIVESOFANIMALS 19
CHAPTERTWO
ElizabethCostello’sLecture:Stories,Thought-Experiments,
andLiteral-Mindedness 21
CHAPTERTHREE
ElizabethCostello’sLecture:ThreePhilosophers
andaNumberofApes 36
CHAPTERFOUR
FoodforThought:TwoSymposia 58
CHAPTERFIVE
FoodforThought:AThirdSymposium 69
CHAPTERSIX
FoodforThought:AnUninvitedGuest? 95
CHAPTERSEVEN
ElizabethCostello’sSeminar:TwoPoetsandaNovelist 110
CHAPTEREIGHT
ElizabethCostello’sSeminar:PrimatologyandAnimalTraining,
PhilosophyandLiteraryTheory 122
PARTTWO:ELIZABETHCOSTELLO 137
CHAPTERNINE
Realism,Modernism,andtheNovel 139
CHAPTERTEN
Costello’sRealistModernism,andCoetzee’s 162
CHAPTERELEVEN
TheBodyinAfrica 184
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTERTWELVE
EvilasObscenity 203
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
TwoEmbodimentsoftheKafkaesque 214
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Conclusion:ThreePostscripts 231
BIBLIOGRAPHY 253
INDEX 257
ABBREVIATIONS
AA C.Diamond,“AnythingbutArgument,”inTheRealisticSpirit
(Cambridge:MITPress,1991).
AT V.Hearne,Adam’sTask:CallingAnimalsbyName
(NewYork:HarperPerennial,1994).
AAT M.Fried,AbsorptionandTheatricality:
PaintingandBeholderintheAgeofDiderot
(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1980).
CR O.O’Neill,“CriticalReviewofClark,TheMoralStatus
ofAnimals,”JournalofPhilosophy77(1980).
DP J.M.Coetzee,DoublingthePoint,ed.D.Attwell
(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress,1992).
DR A.CraryandS.Shieh,eds.,ReadingCavell
(London:Routledge,2006).
E S.Mitchell,Erotikon(NewYork:HarperCollins,2000).
EC J.M.Coetzee,ElizabethCostello:EightLessons
(London:SeckerandWarburg,2003).
EK J.McMahan,TheEthicsofKilling(Oxford:Oxford
UniversityPress,2002).
EM C.Diamond,“EatingMeatandEatingPeople”in
TheRealisticSpirit(Cambridge:MITPress,1991).
EN T.Eagleton,TheEnglishNovel:AnIntroduction
(Oxford:Blackwell,2005).
FCM M.Heidegger,FundamentalConceptsofMetaphysics,
trans.W.McNeillandN.Walker(Bloomington:Indiana
UniversityPress,1995).
LA J.M.Coetzee,TheLivesofAnimals(Princeton:Princeton
UniversityPress,1999).
LC H.vonHofmannsthal,TheLordChandosLetterand
OtherWritings,trans.J.Rotenberg(NewYork:NewYork
ReviewBooks,2005).
MSA S.Clark,TheMoralStatusofAnimals(NewYork:Oxford
UniversityPress,1977).
PAL S.Cavelletal.,PhilosophyandAnimalLife(NewYork:Columbia
UniversityPress,2008).
PD R.Gaita,ThePhilosopher’sDog(Melbourne:Text
Publishing,2002).
PE O.O’Neill,“ThePowerofExample,”Philosophy61(1986).