'Who does he think he is: Jesus?' J. M. Coetzee's Last Confession in Summertime.

With the publication of The Death of Jesus (2019), following The Childhood of Jesus (2013) and The Schooldays of Jesus (2016), J. M. Coetzee's Jesus novels are a completed trilogy. Baffling to reviewers and critics, attempts have been made to situate the Jesus novels in Coetzee's previous oeuvre, an...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Life Writing Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 287 - 310
Autor principal: Ismail, Sherif H.
Formato: Literary Criticism
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Jun2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: 'Who does he think he is: Jesus?' J. M. Coetzee's Last Confession in Summertime.
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        au: Ismail, Sherif H.
        affil: Program in Comparative Literature & Literary Theory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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        Coetzee, J. M., 1940-
        Childhood of Jesus, The (Book : Coetzee)
        20th century (Literary period)
        21st century (Literary period)
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          Coetzee, J. M., 1940-
          Childhood of Jesus, The (Book : Coetzee)
          20th century (Literary period)
          21st century (Literary period)
      keyword:
        confession
        ethical responsibility
        J. M. Coetzee
        Jesus
        redemption
        South Africa
      ab: With the publication of The Death of Jesus (2019), following The Childhood of Jesus (2013) and The Schooldays of Jesus (2016), J. M. Coetzee's Jesus novels are a completed trilogy. Baffling to reviewers and critics, attempts have been made to situate the Jesus novels in Coetzee's previous oeuvre, and to establish continuity in the author's literary thinking and style. This essay highlights Coetzee's identification with Jesus in Summertime (2009), the last instalment in the author's autobiographical trilogy, where an author named John Coetzee is already dead. The essay reads Summertime as an elaborate 'posthumous' confessional design meant by Coetzee to evade the obstacles of secular confession and to enable (fictional) redemption and absolution. Coetzee's invocation of Jesus as 'a guide' in turn serves to code authorial death and resurrection as a final act of sacrifice and taking responsibility. Thus providing a sense of finality to Coetzee's autobiographical trilogy, the confessional design of Summertime prepares for a new phase in the author's writing, in the name of Jesus.
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      doctype: Literary Criticism
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    language: English
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