The article then moves on to a reading of age of iron that focuses on the protagonist mrs currens efforts, in the midst of the violent political struggle in apartheid south africa, to speak in her own voice. Curren, dying of cancer, metaphorically stands for the social and cultural cancer of south africa under apartheid. Oddly, however, age of iron has been viewed from just about every lens but the christian one. Momentous works like mark twains the adventures of huckleberry finn, chinua achebe. Age of iron is a 1990 novel by south african nobel prize winner j. Disgrace, jm coetzee s last novel, set a contemporary benchmark in good fiction. It is among his most popular works and was the 1990 sunday express book of the year. Its an important part of the larger body of coetzee s work for which he. A lecture, describing it as a defining feature of his literary sensibility. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading age of iron. In it, he paints a picture of social and political tragedy unfolding in a country ravaged by racism and violence.
Coetzees age of iron and the poetics of resistance. A classics professor, mrs curren has always been opposed to the brutality of apartheid, but has lived insulated. M coetzee, first published in 1990, we follow the life of mrs curren, an old professor, dying of cancer, through a letter to her daughter in america. My thoughts conclude with the suggestion that coetzee. I am a huge fan of coetzee and have read four of his novels and two of his books on literary criticism. This paper examines the interrelationship between the body and politics in j. Coetzee as the nobel prize laureate in literature for. It is among his most popular works and was the 1990 sunday express book of the ye. Taking a decidedly inward turn, age of iron becomes what all of coetzee s novels are. Life and times of michael k, 1984 has never before written so undeliberate and passionate a novel as this, an agonizing valediction by an old womana south. Coetzee, who himself is a native south african, gives mrs curren a chance to come on good. Coetzee and the ethics of encounter with the other a levinasian analysis find, read and cite all the. Coetzee and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at.
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