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1 - Composition and Craft: Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K

from Part I - Forms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2020

By
David Attwell
Edited by
Jarad Zimbler
Jarad Zimbler
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Summary

This chapter explores the genesis and development of the two novels that brought J. M. Coetzee significant international notice, Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) and Life & Times of Michael K (1983). It makes use of Coetzee’s papers which are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, in particular Coetzee’s manuscripts and notebooks, in giving an account of his creative processes in the formative stages of his career. The chapter shows that ‘composition and craft’ in Coetzee involved a creative tension between self-discipline, organization, and rigour, and openness to the uncertainties of invention.

Keywords

apartheidarchivescraftcreative processcompositiongenetic criticismmanuscriptsSouth African literature
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to J. M. Coetzee , pp. 15 - 28
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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