WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.080 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Our mission is 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:04.299 always the same. We take the source material 00:00:04.299 --> 00:00:06.780 you shared with us, the articles, the research, 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:09.259 the critical analysis, and we distill it into 00:00:09.259 --> 00:00:11.259 the essential knowledge you need to be truly 00:00:11.259 --> 00:00:14.980 well informed. And today we are attempting to 00:00:14.980 --> 00:00:18.420 lock down a literary giant who has spent his 00:00:18.420 --> 00:00:20.719 entire professional life trying to avoid the 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:22.940 spotlight. We are diving deep into the sources 00:00:22.940 --> 00:00:25.660 detailing the life and work of John Maxwell Coetzee. 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:29.000 Yes. And the sheer weight of his recognition. 00:00:29.219 --> 00:00:31.980 I mean, a Nobel laureate, the first person to 00:00:31.980 --> 00:00:34.840 win the Booker Prize twice. It's just staggering. 00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:37.759 It is, especially when you consider his very 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:40.420 deliberate, self -imposed retreat from public 00:00:40.420 --> 00:00:43.380 life. He is this architect of modern moral fiction. 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:47.119 But our sources show he is just defined by profound 00:00:47.119 --> 00:00:49.299 tensions. Tensions is the perfect word. Between 00:00:49.299 --> 00:00:51.399 South Africa and Australia, between English and 00:00:51.399 --> 00:00:53.579 Africans. And between the analytical rigor of 00:00:53.579 --> 00:00:56.840 mathematics and the fluidity of literature. Exactly. 00:00:56.840 --> 00:00:59.359 That tension is the central puzzle piece we need 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:03.200 to understand. How did this deeply complex personal 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:06.299 history from his, well, his very surprising ancestry 00:01:06.299 --> 00:01:10.349 to his wildly unconventional early career. How 00:01:10.349 --> 00:01:13.250 did that shape a writer who obsesses over morality, 00:01:13.650 --> 00:01:16.489 political failure, and the inherent dilemma of 00:01:16.489 --> 00:01:19.370 the outsider? And our source material gives us 00:01:19.370 --> 00:01:22.709 this rich, almost encyclopedic view. So our goal 00:01:22.709 --> 00:01:25.530 is to connect these seemingly disparate biographical 00:01:25.530 --> 00:01:28.650 dots into hopefully a cohesive portrait of a 00:01:28.650 --> 00:01:31.349 singular critical voice. Well, Coetzee's bibliography 00:01:31.349 --> 00:01:33.909 and his biography are, they're just intrinsically 00:01:33.909 --> 00:01:36.650 linked. He holds a list of international accolades 00:01:36.650 --> 00:01:38.950 that is almost unparalleled, and yet he consistently 00:01:38.950 --> 00:01:41.549 refutes them. uses the mantle of celebrity. This 00:01:41.549 --> 00:01:43.870 deliberate alienation, it's not just a personal 00:01:43.870 --> 00:01:46.030 quirk, it's the philosophical foundation for 00:01:46.030 --> 00:01:48.909 his work. His life is a study in navigating these 00:01:48.909 --> 00:01:51.109 conflicting national and intellectual identities, 00:01:51.450 --> 00:01:53.790 which makes him the perfect subject for exploring 00:01:53.790 --> 00:01:56.310 alienation and duality. Okay, so let's start 00:01:56.310 --> 00:01:58.510 right at the beginning. Cape Town, 1940, he was 00:01:58.510 --> 00:02:00.890 born to Africana parents, but immediately you 00:02:00.890 --> 00:02:03.090 see this split. His father was an attorney, his 00:02:03.090 --> 00:02:05.209 mother a school teacher, and they primarily spoke 00:02:05.209 --> 00:02:07.540 English at home. It was only when interacting 00:02:07.540 --> 00:02:10.340 with relatives that AfriCommons really entered 00:02:10.340 --> 00:02:12.639 the conversation. And that initial linguistic 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:15.699 split means Coetzee was immediately placed in 00:02:15.699 --> 00:02:19.639 a space of linguistic and cultural ambiguity 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:22.289 within his own community. Yeah. That ambiguity 00:02:22.289 --> 00:02:25.110 is critical. I mean, in the racially and linguistically 00:02:25.110 --> 00:02:27.490 charged atmosphere of mid -century South Africa, 00:02:27.710 --> 00:02:30.270 choosing which language dominated the home was 00:02:30.270 --> 00:02:32.830 a profound statement or at the very least, a 00:02:32.830 --> 00:02:35.289 profound inheritance. Coetzee grew up with all 00:02:35.289 --> 00:02:37.469 the cultural markers of Africanism. Right. But 00:02:37.469 --> 00:02:39.969 operating primarily in the language of the colonial 00:02:39.969 --> 00:02:43.069 power English. This placed him on the periphery 00:02:43.069 --> 00:02:45.610 of both camps from day one. And the roots go 00:02:45.610 --> 00:02:47.449 even deeper, don't they? They reveal this even 00:02:47.449 --> 00:02:50.050 more complex tapestry of identity. Oh, absolutely. 00:02:50.250 --> 00:02:53.229 His lineage extends far beyond the simple Dutch 00:02:53.229 --> 00:02:55.889 Afrikaner narrative. While his father's side 00:02:55.889 --> 00:02:58.169 descended from 17th century Dutch immigrants, 00:02:58.409 --> 00:03:01.210 his mother's heritage included German, Dutch, 00:03:01.330 --> 00:03:03.969 and really surprisingly, Polish immigrants. That 00:03:03.969 --> 00:03:06.229 Polish connection is fascinating, and it speaks 00:03:06.229 --> 00:03:08.810 to the value of the source material in uncovering 00:03:08.810 --> 00:03:11.979 these hidden influences. It's central. We learn 00:03:11.979 --> 00:03:14.879 that his maternal great -grandfather, Belser 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:17.719 Dubiel, and his name was later Germanized, he 00:03:17.719 --> 00:03:21.620 was born in Czarnowice, Poland in 1844. And this 00:03:21.620 --> 00:03:23.659 isn't just a bit of trivia, is it? Not at all. 00:03:23.819 --> 00:03:26.240 The source highlights that this ancestry directly 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:29.900 led to a lifelong preoccupation with Polish literature 00:03:29.900 --> 00:03:32.460 and culture. Which provides so much context for 00:03:32.460 --> 00:03:36.020 his later works. His 2022 novel, The Pole, which 00:03:36.020 --> 00:03:38.300 is about a Polish pianist, suddenly makes perfect 00:03:38.300 --> 00:03:40.960 sense. You realize this is a long hidden ancestral 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:43.699 thread feeding directly into his creative output. 00:03:44.219 --> 00:03:46.860 decades and decades later. It's a powerful illustration 00:03:46.860 --> 00:03:50.199 of how profoundly writers synthesize these diverse, 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:52.719 often conflicting personal narratives into their 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:54.879 fiction. But before he was translating these 00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:57.659 complex cultural anxieties into novels, he was 00:03:57.659 --> 00:04:01.659 focused on logic. Right. He attended St. Joseph's 00:04:01.659 --> 00:04:03.680 College and then the University of Cape Town 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:05.879 UCT, which is where his intellectual breadth 00:04:05.879 --> 00:04:08.300 really became apparent. He earned undergraduate 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:11.560 degrees in both English in 1960 and in mathematics 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:14.800 in 1961. That dual background is the ultimate 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:17.480 aha moment for understanding his prose style. 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:20.680 Yes. It explains why his fiction, even when it's 00:04:20.680 --> 00:04:23.459 dealing with immense emotional cruelty, maintains 00:04:23.459 --> 00:04:26.519 this almost cold, measured, and structurally 00:04:26.519 --> 00:04:29.720 rigorous quality. He has the fluid, descriptive 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:32.639 capacity of an English scholar. But filtered 00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:34.740 through the analytical, problem -solving mind 00:04:34.740 --> 00:04:37.160 of a mathematician. Exactly. The mathematical 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:40.160 training provides the analytical skeleton for 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:43.019 his entire philosophical project. I mean, you 00:04:43.019 --> 00:04:45.459 think of novels like Waiting for the Barbarians 00:04:45.459 --> 00:04:48.000 or Disgrace. They function almost like ethical 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.180 proofs. Ethical proofs. I like that. They isolate 00:04:50.180 --> 00:04:52.980 a moral dilemma and meticulously strip away the 00:04:52.980 --> 00:04:55.420 comfort of social norms until the core ethical 00:04:55.420 --> 00:04:59.560 failure is just exposed. It's literary minimalism 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:02.720 informed by analytical rigor. So after his BAs, 00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:05.699 he did an MA thesis on Ford Maddox Ford in 1963, 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:08.040 which signals, you know, continued commitment 00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:09.870 to English literature. But then came this huge 00:05:09.870 --> 00:05:12.290 left turn. The computer programmer years? Between 00:05:12.290 --> 00:05:15.750 1962 and 1965, he moved to the UK, worked for 00:05:15.750 --> 00:05:17.750 IBM in London, and then for ICT International 00:05:17.750 --> 00:05:20.209 Computers and Tabulators in Bracknell. It's a 00:05:20.209 --> 00:05:22.850 remarkable interlude. It places the future Nobel 00:05:22.850 --> 00:05:26.689 laureate not in an ivory tower or a garret, but 00:05:26.689 --> 00:05:29.610 in the nascent world of corporate technology. 00:05:30.540 --> 00:05:33.399 dealing with algorithms and punch cards. He was 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:36.819 a highly technical, specialized employee in a 00:05:36.819 --> 00:05:39.699 foreign land. And this experience was so defining 00:05:39.699 --> 00:05:42.199 that he later fictionalized it in his memoir, 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:45.879 Youth. Right. In Youth, he documents these feelings 00:05:45.879 --> 00:05:48.699 of alienation. He describes himself as feeling 00:05:48.699 --> 00:05:51.300 like a colonial while living in London. And that's 00:05:51.300 --> 00:05:53.480 a crucial piece of the puzzle, isn't it? He's 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:56.100 in the heart of the empire, but he feels intrinsically 00:05:56.100 --> 00:05:59.240 foreign. It reinforces that identity as an outsider 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:01.819 that just permeates all his future work. He's 00:06:01.819 --> 00:06:04.079 geographically displaced and professionally specialized, 00:06:04.500 --> 00:06:06.939 applying a scientific discipline to a burgeoning 00:06:06.939 --> 00:06:08.980 industry. Yeah, that analytical approach required 00:06:08.980 --> 00:06:11.639 for programming, the impersonal logic, the structure, 00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:14.660 finding solutions within these constrained parameters. 00:06:14.980 --> 00:06:16.839 It would serve him so well when constructing 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:19.839 his deeply critical novels. He spent four years 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:22.720 translating messy human demands into pure sh**. 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:25.220 structured logic. And when he turned that same 00:06:25.220 --> 00:06:28.060 meticulous focus onto the messy, irrational world 00:06:28.060 --> 00:06:31.720 of human ethics, the results were just devastatingly 00:06:31.720 --> 00:06:34.720 clear and structured. So we have this analytical, 00:06:34.980 --> 00:06:37.800 mathematical brain steeped in the tensions of 00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:40.740 colonial heritage, suddenly shifting gears. What 00:06:40.740 --> 00:06:43.160 ultimately prompted him to abandon the corporate 00:06:43.160 --> 00:06:45.879 technological world and pursue the academic track 00:06:45.879 --> 00:06:48.259 in the United States? Well, that shift came in 00:06:48.259 --> 00:06:51.199 1965. He moved to the University of Texas at 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:54.160 Austin to pursue his Ph .D. And while his coursework 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:56.579 touched on things like bibliography and Old English, 00:06:56.779 --> 00:06:59.459 his dissertation remained intensely analytical. 00:06:59.620 --> 00:07:02.000 It really showcased that intersection of math 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:03.959 and literature we were just talking about. OK, 00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:06.360 let's elaborate on that dissertation. His Ph 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:10.079 .D., awarded in 1969, was a computer -aided stylistic 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:12.540 analysis of the English prose of Samuel Beckett. 00:07:13.579 --> 00:07:15.579 For you listening, if you're not deep in literary 00:07:15.579 --> 00:07:18.379 academia, what does computer -aided stylistic 00:07:18.379 --> 00:07:20.800 analysis actually tell us that traditional critique 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:23.639 misses? That's a key question. And why Beckett 00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:25.660 of all people? Well, traditional critique focuses 00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:29.379 on meaning, emotion, narrative. A computer -aided 00:07:29.379 --> 00:07:31.740 analysis is concerned with quantifiable structure. 00:07:32.329 --> 00:07:35.910 Word frequency, sentence length variation, lexical 00:07:35.910 --> 00:07:39.170 density, rhythmic patterns. He wasn't just reading 00:07:39.170 --> 00:07:41.889 Beckett. He was mathematically decoding Beckett's 00:07:41.889 --> 00:07:45.050 unique architecture of alienation. He was quantifying 00:07:45.050 --> 00:07:48.129 the structure of despair. So it's like it's the 00:07:48.129 --> 00:07:51.790 ultimate expression of his dual intellect. applying 00:07:51.790 --> 00:07:55.509 cold, hard data to one of literature's most emotionally 00:07:55.509 --> 00:07:58.209 desolate and abstract figures. And since Beckett 00:07:58.209 --> 00:08:00.569 himself was fundamentally concerned with the 00:08:00.569 --> 00:08:03.290 failure of language to communicate. Coetzee was 00:08:03.290 --> 00:08:06.110 using technology to measure that failure. Precisely. 00:08:06.110 --> 00:08:09.129 And this intellectual rigor extended beyond English. 00:08:09.310 --> 00:08:11.689 During this time, he also published a linguistic 00:08:11.689 --> 00:08:14.670 paper on the morphology of Nama, Malay, and Dutch 00:08:14.670 --> 00:08:17.550 languages. He was operating across multiple linguistic 00:08:17.550 --> 00:08:20.800 spheres, always analyzing the structure. of communication. 00:08:21.220 --> 00:08:23.519 And just a small note, while we're on his time 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:25.540 in Texas, it's worth noting the clarification 00:08:25.540 --> 00:08:28.339 in our sources. He has stated very clearly he 00:08:28.339 --> 00:08:30.360 was not a Fulbright scholar, contrary to many 00:08:30.360 --> 00:08:32.779 reports. Right. Again, just showing his quiet, 00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:35.240 factual corrective to public narratives about 00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:38.360 his life. So moving from Texas, he started teaching 00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:40.399 English literature at the State University of 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:45.220 New York, SUNY, at Buffalo in 1968. And this 00:08:45.220 --> 00:08:48.299 period was pivotal. It was. Not just because 00:08:48.299 --> 00:08:50.679 it's where he began writing his first novel, 00:08:50.779 --> 00:08:53.340 Dusklands. But because it brought him into direct 00:08:53.340 --> 00:08:57.009 and very costly political conflict. This political 00:08:57.009 --> 00:08:59.750 confrontation is absolutely essential for understanding 00:08:59.750 --> 00:09:02.690 his later distrust of institutions. His attempt 00:09:02.690 --> 00:09:04.909 to gain permanent U .S. residency was ultimately 00:09:04.909 --> 00:09:07.649 unsuccessful. And the sources explicitly state 00:09:07.649 --> 00:09:09.750 this was partly due to his intense involvement 00:09:09.750 --> 00:09:12.230 in anti -Vietnam War protests. And this is where 00:09:12.230 --> 00:09:14.789 his moral conviction translated into direct action. 00:09:14.909 --> 00:09:17.029 We have this really vivid anecdote from March 00:09:17.029 --> 00:09:20.970 1970. Coetzee was one of 45 faculty members arrested 00:09:20.970 --> 00:09:23.789 for criminal trespass after occupying Hayes Hall 00:09:23.789 --> 00:09:25.690 at the university as part of these protests. 00:09:25.799 --> 00:09:28.000 It's a powerful illustration. Here you have the 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:30.340 highly analytical, somewhat reserved academic 00:09:30.340 --> 00:09:32.879 willing to risk his legal status, his career 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:35.460 security to stand against a system he considered 00:09:35.460 --> 00:09:37.899 morally bankrupt, the U .S. involvement in Vietnam. 00:09:38.179 --> 00:09:41.440 And even though the charges were dropped in 1971, 00:09:41.940 --> 00:09:45.519 the fact that this political entanglement contributed 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:49.269 to the denial of his residency. It demonstrates 00:09:49.269 --> 00:09:51.289 a crucial point. That the American political 00:09:51.289 --> 00:09:53.850 system literally rejected him because of his 00:09:53.850 --> 00:09:56.809 moral protests. Exactly. That rejection solidified 00:09:56.809 --> 00:09:59.690 the identity of the political outsider. Unable 00:09:59.690 --> 00:10:02.009 to secure permanent residency, he was forced 00:10:02.009 --> 00:10:04.629 back to South Africa. a country he was already 00:10:04.629 --> 00:10:07.710 deeply alienated from due to his upbringing and 00:10:07.710 --> 00:10:10.409 his views on apartheid. His initial foray into 00:10:10.409 --> 00:10:12.909 the international academic world ended not with 00:10:12.909 --> 00:10:15.549 scholarly success but with political expulsion. 00:10:15.769 --> 00:10:17.710 So Coetzee returns to the University of Cape 00:10:17.710 --> 00:10:20.429 Town in 1972, and he would stay there for the 00:10:20.429 --> 00:10:22.830 next three decades, really establishing himself 00:10:22.830 --> 00:10:25.049 as a foundational figure in South African letters. 00:10:25.250 --> 00:10:27.129 He steadily rose through the ranks Professor 00:10:27.129 --> 00:10:29.990 of General Literature in 1984, Distinguished 00:10:29.990 --> 00:10:33.120 Professor by 1999. In this period, teaching and 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:35.240 researching under the oppressive weight of apartheid 00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:36.659 and then during the transition to democracy, 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:39.320 this is what produced his most celebrated novels. 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:43.639 It is. Yet in 2002, he made another major and 00:10:43.639 --> 00:10:47.179 final geographic shift, moving to Adelaide, Australia, 00:10:47.419 --> 00:10:50.539 becoming an Australian citizen in 2006. Why the 00:10:50.539 --> 00:10:53.110 move? especially after the celebrated end of 00:10:53.110 --> 00:10:55.330 apartheid. Well, the reason he cited was highly 00:10:55.330 --> 00:10:57.549 contentious. He publicly stated that the South 00:10:57.549 --> 00:10:59.970 African government's lax attitude toward crime 00:10:59.970 --> 00:11:02.809 and endemic violence was a driving factor in 00:11:02.809 --> 00:11:05.509 his departure. And this resulted in a very public, 00:11:05.669 --> 00:11:07.809 very heated disagreement with the then president, 00:11:07.909 --> 00:11:10.370 Thabo Mbeki. That exchange made international 00:11:10.370 --> 00:11:13.149 news, and it really highlights the deep sensitivity 00:11:13.149 --> 00:11:16.620 around national critique. Mbeki famously fired 00:11:16.620 --> 00:11:19.399 back, referencing Coetzee's second Booker -winning 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:22.000 novel, Disgrace. Right. He said, South Africa 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:24.080 is not only a place of rape. And that exchange 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:26.639 just illustrates the price Coetzee paid for his 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:29.320 critical truth. Disgrace is often read as an 00:11:29.320 --> 00:11:31.299 allegory for the failures of post -apartheid 00:11:31.299 --> 00:11:33.659 reconciliation, focusing on violence and moral 00:11:33.659 --> 00:11:36.340 collapse. So Mbeki's comment was an attempt to 00:11:36.340 --> 00:11:39.340 dismiss Coetzee's critique as distorted, overly 00:11:39.340 --> 00:11:41.580 focused on the negative and failing to see the 00:11:41.580 --> 00:11:44.070 new nation's achievements. Right. And it's important 00:11:44.070 --> 00:11:46.850 to understand the historical context here. The 00:11:46.850 --> 00:11:49.990 African National Congress, the ANC itself, had 00:11:49.990 --> 00:11:52.190 submitted an argument to a Human Rights Commission 00:11:52.190 --> 00:11:55.230 investigation claiming that disgrace depicted 00:11:55.230 --> 00:11:58.470 racist stereotypes. So Coetzee was facing friction 00:11:58.470 --> 00:12:00.669 not just from the old Africana establishment, 00:12:01.090 --> 00:12:04.450 but now from the new democratic government he 00:12:04.450 --> 00:12:07.190 had theoretically helped usher in. He was again 00:12:07.190 --> 00:12:09.690 positioned as the outsider, critically distant 00:12:09.690 --> 00:12:12.450 from the reigning political orthodoxy. But crucially, 00:12:12.549 --> 00:12:14.389 Coetzee offered a more nuanced clarification 00:12:14.389 --> 00:12:17.149 about his move, didn't he? He avoided the language 00:12:17.149 --> 00:12:20.090 of flight or pure rejection. He did. He emphasized 00:12:20.090 --> 00:12:23.169 that he did not so much leave South Africa, but 00:12:23.169 --> 00:12:25.909 come to Australia. He said he was drawn by the 00:12:25.909 --> 00:12:28.590 free and generous spirit of the people and the 00:12:28.590 --> 00:12:31.049 grace of the city that I now have the honor of 00:12:31.049 --> 00:12:34.169 calling my home. That framing, choosing to embrace 00:12:34.169 --> 00:12:36.470 a new identity rather than solely fleeing the 00:12:36.470 --> 00:12:38.730 old one, that's vital. It emphasizes the agency 00:12:38.730 --> 00:12:41.110 of the intellectual outsider. He was seeking 00:12:41.110 --> 00:12:43.389 a calmer, more predictable environment where 00:12:43.389 --> 00:12:45.850 he could continue his intense moral exploration 00:12:45.850 --> 00:12:48.710 rather than constantly fighting political battles 00:12:48.710 --> 00:12:51.690 on his home turf. And Australia embraced him 00:12:51.690 --> 00:12:54.809 fully. While he maintained strong emotional ties 00:12:54.809 --> 00:12:57.309 to South Africa, he even received the prestigious 00:12:57.309 --> 00:13:01.009 order of Mapugubwe in 2005 for putting the country 00:13:01.009 --> 00:13:03.470 on the world stage. His commitment to Australia 00:13:03.470 --> 00:13:06.210 is clear. Absolutely. He was appointed a Companion 00:13:06.210 --> 00:13:09.090 of the Order of Australia in 2025, and he's the 00:13:09.090 --> 00:13:11.370 patron of the J .M. Coetzee Center for Creative 00:13:11.370 --> 00:13:14.230 Practice at the University of Adelaide. He didn't 00:13:14.230 --> 00:13:17.169 just relocate, he integrated and became a foundational 00:13:17.169 --> 00:13:20.029 figure in another national literature. Let's 00:13:20.029 --> 00:13:22.190 shift our focus to the writing itself, which, 00:13:22.269 --> 00:13:24.730 despite his personal reclusiveness, brought him 00:13:24.730 --> 00:13:27.700 this unprecedented official recognition. His 00:13:27.700 --> 00:13:30.500 career is just marked by milestones that few 00:13:30.500 --> 00:13:33.080 authors ever touch. And the defining metric of 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:35.179 his pre -Nobel career was his mastery of the 00:13:35.179 --> 00:13:37.720 Booker Prize. Coetzee was the first writer in 00:13:37.720 --> 00:13:40.220 history to win the prestigious award twice. Right. 00:13:40.259 --> 00:13:42.620 His first win came relatively early in his career, 00:13:42.679 --> 00:13:46.179 1983, for Life and Times of Michael Kay, a novel 00:13:46.179 --> 00:13:48.379 that's often praised for its political subtlety 00:13:48.379 --> 00:13:50.840 and narrative detachment. And his second win 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:54.240 followed 16 years later in 1999. For Disgrace. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:57.679 For disgrace. Right. Which just became this global 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:00.620 flashpoint for its unflinching portrayal of post 00:14:00.620 --> 00:14:03.759 -apartheid trauma. Winning the Booker twice was 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:06.080 a massive achievement at the time. Yeah. To emphasize 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:08.740 the scale of that, it wasn't until the 2000s 00:14:08.740 --> 00:14:11.419 that others, Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel, and 00:14:11.419 --> 00:14:13.840 later Margaret Atwood, achieved the same feat. 00:14:14.110 --> 00:14:16.009 He set the standard for sustained excellence 00:14:16.009 --> 00:14:19.009 over decades. In fact, he almost made it an unprecedented 00:14:19.009 --> 00:14:22.649 triple win in 2009 when his memoir novel Summertime 00:14:22.649 --> 00:14:25.090 was long listed and highly favored. Which just 00:14:25.090 --> 00:14:27.710 showcases the consistent draw his work has for 00:14:27.710 --> 00:14:29.990 critical juries. Yeah. His consistency in garnering 00:14:29.990 --> 00:14:32.509 attention is remarkable. Beyond the wins, his 00:14:32.509 --> 00:14:35.190 works were long listed multiple times. Elizabeth 00:14:35.190 --> 00:14:38.750 Costello in 2003, Slow Man in 2005, and The School 00:14:38.750 --> 00:14:41.429 Days of Jesus in 2016. This demonstrates not 00:14:41.429 --> 00:14:43.149 just a high quality of writing, but a career 00:14:43.149 --> 00:14:45.120 spent constantly pushing boundaries and challenging 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:47.700 expectations, always landing him squarely in 00:14:47.700 --> 00:14:49.639 the international conversation. And yet this 00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:52.460 massive public recognition is juxtaposed with 00:14:52.460 --> 00:14:55.580 his legendary reclusiveness. The sources describe 00:14:55.580 --> 00:14:58.720 his public image as one of monkish self -discipline. 00:14:58.779 --> 00:15:01.620 He notoriously avoids ceremonies. He did not 00:15:01.620 --> 00:15:03.899 collect either of his two Booker Prizes in person. 00:15:04.120 --> 00:15:06.720 That behavioral pattern is so fascinating. It 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:09.879 suggests a profound separation between the creative 00:15:09.879 --> 00:15:13.580 act and the, uh... the ensuing public spectacle. 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:16.559 I think so. Does he see the celebration as a 00:15:16.559 --> 00:15:19.460 distraction from the work itself? Or maybe he 00:15:19.460 --> 00:15:21.940 views the mechanism of awards, the competitive 00:15:21.940 --> 00:15:25.559 nationalistic framing, as inherently incompatible 00:15:25.559 --> 00:15:27.700 with the serious moral work he's doing? It's 00:15:27.700 --> 00:15:30.059 probably both. I think it's both. The acceptance 00:15:30.059 --> 00:15:33.000 of the 1987 Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:35.779 the Individual in Society offers a key insight 00:15:35.779 --> 00:15:38.669 into his approach. While he avoided the celebrity, 00:15:38.889 --> 00:15:41.009 he used the formal platform of the awards ceremony 00:15:41.009 --> 00:15:43.110 to make a direct political statement about the 00:15:43.110 --> 00:15:44.950 context of his writing. And what was that statement? 00:15:45.110 --> 00:15:47.669 He spoke of South African literature being a 00:15:47.669 --> 00:15:50.470 literature in bondage. a very harsh assessment 00:15:50.470 --> 00:15:52.629 that rejected the idea of literature as mere 00:15:52.629 --> 00:15:55.309 escapism. He argued that the political structures 00:15:55.309 --> 00:15:57.889 of apartheid created deformed and stunted relations 00:15:57.889 --> 00:16:00.289 between human beings, and the literature produced 00:16:00.289 --> 00:16:02.909 under that regime carried that burden. So he 00:16:02.909 --> 00:16:05.190 was using the prize not as an endorsement of 00:16:05.190 --> 00:16:07.929 himself, but as a megaphone for political critique. 00:16:08.070 --> 00:16:11.029 And then the ultimate confirmation of his global 00:16:11.029 --> 00:16:14.409 status arrived in 2003 with the Nobel Prize in 00:16:14.409 --> 00:16:17.070 Literature. making him the fourth African writer 00:16:17.070 --> 00:16:19.750 and the second South African after Nadine Gordimer 00:16:19.750 --> 00:16:22.850 to receive the honor. And the Swedish Academy's 00:16:22.850 --> 00:16:25.769 citation, it basically codified the critical 00:16:25.769 --> 00:16:29.429 themes of his entire career. It did. The Academy 00:16:29.429 --> 00:16:31.809 focused heavily on the moral depth and complexity 00:16:31.809 --> 00:16:34.649 of his characterizations. They noted that he, 00:16:34.769 --> 00:16:37.230 in innumerable guises, portrays the surprising 00:16:37.230 --> 00:16:39.809 involvement of the outsider. Which confirms that 00:16:39.809 --> 00:16:42.049 the identity we traced from his childhood, the 00:16:42.049 --> 00:16:44.429 linguistically ambiguous, politically rejected, 00:16:44.750 --> 00:16:47.289 mathematically rigorous individual, is the identity 00:16:47.289 --> 00:16:49.409 that informs his greatest literary strength. 00:16:49.669 --> 00:16:51.870 And the Academy didn't ignore his technique either. 00:16:52.070 --> 00:16:55.309 They specifically praised his well -crafted composition, 00:16:55.710 --> 00:16:57.990 pregnant dialogue, and analytical brilliance. 00:16:58.409 --> 00:17:01.149 That phrase, analytical brilliance, is the direct 00:17:01.149 --> 00:17:04.130 link back to that 1961 mathematics degree and 00:17:04.130 --> 00:17:06.869 the computer -aided Beckett thesis. His writing 00:17:06.869 --> 00:17:09.569 is rigorous, structured, and emotionally devastating 00:17:09.569 --> 00:17:12.349 precisely because of that analytical distance. 00:17:12.710 --> 00:17:15.250 The Nobel cemented his position as a major moral 00:17:15.250 --> 00:17:18.109 voice on the global stage. It meant that his 00:17:18.109 --> 00:17:20.130 explorations of human cruelty, institutional 00:17:20.130 --> 00:17:22.950 failure, and the ethical responsibilities of 00:17:22.950 --> 00:17:25.910 individuals could no longer be confined to national 00:17:25.910 --> 00:17:28.509 or regional literary categories. They had become 00:17:28.509 --> 00:17:31.069 universal concerns delivered with structural 00:17:31.069 --> 00:17:33.910 precision. And beyond the giants of the Nobel 00:17:33.910 --> 00:17:36.509 and the Booker, the sheer breadth of his recognition 00:17:36.509 --> 00:17:38.890 highlights how consistently he's been admired 00:17:38.890 --> 00:17:42.190 by critics across borders. He won the CNA Literary 00:17:42.190 --> 00:17:45.029 Award three times. His early work, Waiting for 00:17:45.029 --> 00:17:47.170 the Barbarians, secured both the James Tate Black 00:17:47.170 --> 00:17:49.650 Memorial Prize and the Jeffrey Faber Memorial 00:17:49.650 --> 00:17:52.349 Prize. And globally, he was recognized in France 00:17:52.349 --> 00:17:55.210 with the Prix Femina Etage. His works consistently 00:17:55.210 --> 00:17:57.710 dominated regional categories, like the Commonwealth 00:17:57.710 --> 00:17:59.849 Writers' Prizes for the African region, which 00:17:59.849 --> 00:18:02.490 he won for disgrace in 2000. And that specific 00:18:02.490 --> 00:18:04.849 award was personally presented by Queen Elizabeth 00:18:04.849 --> 00:18:08.019 II at Buckingham Palace. Which is an ironic moment, 00:18:08.099 --> 00:18:10.240 isn't it, for a man who felt like a colonial 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:13.240 in London, now being honored by the symbolic 00:18:13.240 --> 00:18:16.299 head of the former empire. Let's go back to South 00:18:16.299 --> 00:18:18.880 Africa's acknowledgement. Despite the public 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:21.400 friction with Mbeki and his departure for Australia, 00:18:21.700 --> 00:18:24.019 the South African government awarded him the 00:18:24.019 --> 00:18:27.859 Order of Mapungubwe gold class in 2005. They 00:18:27.859 --> 00:18:30.680 cited his exceptional contribution in the field 00:18:30.680 --> 00:18:33.160 of literature and for putting South Africa on 00:18:33.160 --> 00:18:36.630 the world stage. That gesture is profound. It 00:18:36.630 --> 00:18:38.890 demonstrates that the nation recognized his vital 00:18:38.890 --> 00:18:41.549 importance to its identity, even if it wrestled 00:18:41.549 --> 00:18:44.369 with the content of his critiques. It was a formal 00:18:44.369 --> 00:18:47.049 acknowledgement that Coetzee's role was fundamentally 00:18:47.049 --> 00:18:49.630 nation defining, regardless of his geographical 00:18:49.630 --> 00:18:52.470 location or political opposition. And his adopted 00:18:52.470 --> 00:18:55.430 home, Australia, has ensured his influence remains 00:18:55.430 --> 00:18:58.029 strong. His appointment as a companion of the 00:18:58.029 --> 00:19:00.269 Order of Australia and his role as patron of 00:19:00.269 --> 00:19:02.269 the J .M. Coetzee Center for Creative Practice 00:19:02.269 --> 00:19:05.089 confirms his deep integration into Australian 00:19:05.089 --> 00:19:07.730 academia and cultural life. He has a stable base 00:19:07.730 --> 00:19:09.920 from which he continues his work. Okay, so we've 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:12.779 established Coetzee's foundational identity as 00:19:12.779 --> 00:19:16.160 this dualistic analytical outsider. Now let's 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:18.079 look at how that translated into a definitive 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:21.859 shift in his writing strategy after 1999. The 00:19:21.859 --> 00:19:24.200 sheer volume of his work is impressive, but critics 00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:26.279 point to a crucial pivot away from traditional 00:19:26.279 --> 00:19:28.980 narrative. Since the publication of Disgrace 00:19:28.980 --> 00:19:32.140 in 1999, the sources confirm a definite and deliberate 00:19:32.140 --> 00:19:36.019 move away from what is termed naturalistic. storytelling 00:19:36.019 --> 00:19:38.579 fiction. And for you listening, naturalistic 00:19:38.579 --> 00:19:40.759 fiction is typically characterized by detailed 00:19:40.759 --> 00:19:43.400 realism, strong plot lines, and conventional 00:19:43.400 --> 00:19:45.920 character arcs like his earlier South African 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:48.619 set novels. Right. So what did he move toward? 00:19:48.779 --> 00:19:51.579 He transitioned toward more hybrid abstract forms, 00:19:51.880 --> 00:19:54.599 essays presented as fiction, polemics embedded 00:19:54.599 --> 00:19:57.480 in dialogue, and memoir contained within a fictional 00:19:57.480 --> 00:20:00.140 framework. This shift allowed him to bypass the 00:20:00.140 --> 00:20:02.779 limitations of realism and engage directly with 00:20:02.779 --> 00:20:05.779 abstract philosophical debate. Right. He uses 00:20:05.779 --> 00:20:07.980 the form of the novel less for storytelling and 00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:10.579 more for rigorous ethical interrogation. And 00:20:10.579 --> 00:20:13.180 this transition introduced the frequent use of 00:20:13.180 --> 00:20:16.380 alter egos, turning his fiction into what James 00:20:16.380 --> 00:20:19.259 Meek described as an intimate conversation he's 00:20:19.259 --> 00:20:21.099 having with himself. That's a perfect description. 00:20:21.259 --> 00:20:24.099 It feels like a strategic move to critique and 00:20:24.099 --> 00:20:26.599 test his own ideas without committing to a nonfiction 00:20:26.599 --> 00:20:29.599 stance. Precisely. We can categorize these alter 00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:32.519 egos into three distinct types, all designed 00:20:32.519 --> 00:20:35.019 to embody different facets of Coetzee's critique. 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:38.400 First, there's the world -weary male academic 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:41.160 or magistrate, like David Lurie in Disgrace. 00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:43.259 These characters are usually placed under immense 00:20:43.259 --> 00:20:46.420 ethical duress, forced to confront societal failures 00:20:46.420 --> 00:20:48.960 and their own moral decay. The second is maybe 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:52.180 the most fascinating. The female proxy, the elderly, 00:20:52.339 --> 00:20:55.180 scholarly, world -weary novelist Elizabeth Costello. 00:20:55.480 --> 00:20:57.599 A recurring character who serves as a philosophical 00:20:57.599 --> 00:21:00.579 mouthpiece, delivering powerful, often uncomfortable 00:21:00.579 --> 00:21:03.019 lectures on topics like vegetarianism, animal 00:21:03.019 --> 00:21:05.299 rights, and the nature of evil. So why use a 00:21:05.299 --> 00:21:07.539 female proxy and an elderly one at that? Well, 00:21:07.660 --> 00:21:10.559 it creates distance and authority. By putting 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:12.960 his most potent philosophical arguments into 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:15.940 the mouth of a fictional older woman, he achieves 00:21:15.940 --> 00:21:18.400 several things. He avoids the immediate charge 00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:21.220 of male autobiography. Sure. He gives the ideas 00:21:21.220 --> 00:21:24.500 a distinct, often abrasive voice separate from 00:21:24.500 --> 00:21:27.240 his own public persona. And he leverages the 00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:29.559 moral authority often ascribed to the figure 00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:32.440 of the elder intellectual woman. It's a mechanism 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:34.980 for polemic cloaked in fiction. And the third 00:21:34.980 --> 00:21:38.109 type is Coetzee himself. writing autobiographically 00:21:38.109 --> 00:21:40.329 in works like Boyhood, Youth, and Summertime. 00:21:40.809 --> 00:21:43.509 The source notes that he is often harsh on himself 00:21:43.509 --> 00:21:45.829 in these characters. And this is not autobiography 00:21:45.829 --> 00:21:48.390 designed to stroke the ego. It is self -critique 00:21:48.390 --> 00:21:51.650 as literature. By fictionalizing and often lampooning 00:21:51.650 --> 00:21:53.970 the character named Coetzee, he subjects his 00:21:53.970 --> 00:21:56.509 own life and choices to the same analytical scrutiny 00:21:56.509 --> 00:21:59.210 he applies to his fictional protagonists. And 00:21:59.210 --> 00:22:01.250 this strategy highlights his commitment to operating 00:22:01.250 --> 00:22:03.930 as a global, linguistic, and literary outsider. 00:22:04.660 --> 00:22:06.819 constantly testing the moral limits of his own 00:22:06.819 --> 00:22:09.220 experiences, like feeling like a colonial when 00:22:09.220 --> 00:22:11.940 living in London, as captured in Youth. This 00:22:11.940 --> 00:22:14.539 relentless self -critique leads us directly to 00:22:14.539 --> 00:22:17.079 his lifelong preoccupation with language itself. 00:22:18.180 --> 00:22:21.200 Specifically, his profound resistance to the 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:24.500 global dominance, the hegemony of English. So 00:22:24.500 --> 00:22:26.240 how does one of the most celebrated writers in 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:28.519 English articulate resistance to the language 00:22:28.519 --> 00:22:43.599 that brought him global liberation? I mean, that's 00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:46.309 a staggering declaration. It is. He continues, 00:22:46.470 --> 00:22:48.309 I don't like the arrogance that this situation 00:22:48.309 --> 00:22:51.269 breeds in its native speakers. Therefore, I do 00:22:51.269 --> 00:22:53.410 what little I can to resist the hegemony of the 00:22:53.410 --> 00:22:55.730 English language. So he's using the global medium 00:22:55.730 --> 00:22:58.250 to fight the global power. Is he seeking a kind 00:22:58.250 --> 00:23:01.170 of linguistic purity? Or is he just highlighting 00:23:01.170 --> 00:23:03.509 the political and cultural cost of monolingual 00:23:03.509 --> 00:23:06.269 dominance? It's about the cost of cultural dominance. 00:23:06.710 --> 00:23:09.369 He gained his liberation through English. It 00:23:09.369 --> 00:23:11.349 allowed him to speak to the world beyond South 00:23:11.349 --> 00:23:14.390 Africa. Yet he feels constantly uneasy with its 00:23:14.390 --> 00:23:17.000 power. He described his command of English as 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:19.339 feeling like the kind of command that a foreigner 00:23:19.339 --> 00:23:21.660 might have, even though he's a native speaker. 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:25.000 So this alienation means he views English, the 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:27.640 very language he uses for his art, as a loaded 00:23:27.640 --> 00:23:30.299 political tool that must be handled with suspicion 00:23:30.299 --> 00:23:33.789 and care. This language conflict drove him toward 00:23:33.789 --> 00:23:36.569 tangible activism in the literary world, leading 00:23:36.569 --> 00:23:39.490 to his ambitious Literatures of the South project. 00:23:39.849 --> 00:23:42.829 We know he studied Spanish early on, which reflects 00:23:42.829 --> 00:23:45.369 a broader interest in non -English voices. Yes, 00:23:45.369 --> 00:23:47.930 and his longstanding intellectual interest in 00:23:47.930 --> 00:23:50.309 Southern Hemisphere perspectives crystallized 00:23:50.309 --> 00:23:52.490 into a major academic and publishing initiative. 00:23:52.769 --> 00:23:56.089 From 2015 to 2018, he directed a biannual seminar 00:23:56.089 --> 00:23:58.970 series, the Catendra Coetzee, at a university 00:23:58.970 --> 00:24:01.690 in Argentina. This project focused on comparative 00:24:01.690 --> 00:24:03.950 perspectives between Southern Africa, Australia, 00:24:04.210 --> 00:24:06.549 New Zealand, and South America. So this was a 00:24:06.549 --> 00:24:09.710 deliberate effort to establish intellectual connections 00:24:09.710 --> 00:24:13.109 in a critical framework that bypassed the traditional 00:24:13.109 --> 00:24:15.450 North American and European literary centers. 00:24:15.690 --> 00:24:17.849 It's an active way of creating a new literary 00:24:17.849 --> 00:24:20.930 map. Exactly. It attempts to recenter the conversation, 00:24:21.269 --> 00:24:23.589 shifting critical attention to common historical 00:24:23.589 --> 00:24:27.009 and post -colonial experiences shared by countries 00:24:27.009 --> 00:24:29.630 in the Southern Hemisphere. It's an intellectual 00:24:29.630 --> 00:24:32.210 resistance movement against the North's perceived 00:24:32.210 --> 00:24:35.109 monopoly on critical theory and literary history. 00:24:35.329 --> 00:24:37.589 And he backed this intellectual commitment with 00:24:37.589 --> 00:24:40.410 his personal publishing strategy. His later works, 00:24:40.569 --> 00:24:43.369 including the Jesus Trilogy and his 2023 novel, 00:24:43.569 --> 00:24:45.950 The Pole. They reflect this. He deliberately 00:24:45.950 --> 00:24:48.369 chose to publish these works first in the South, 00:24:48.369 --> 00:24:50.549 in Australia and Argentina, before they appeared 00:24:50.549 --> 00:24:53.240 in the UK or US. And this is perhaps his most 00:24:53.240 --> 00:24:56.480 powerful and symbolic act of resistance. It's 00:24:56.480 --> 00:24:59.480 a practical, economic, and cultural move that 00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:02.900 leverages his global influence. He is forcing 00:25:02.900 --> 00:25:05.160 the Western literary world to receive his work 00:25:05.160 --> 00:25:07.279 from the South rather than dictating its reception 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:10.079 from London or New York. And he was very intentional 00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:13.059 about this. He stated plainly, the symbolism 00:25:13.059 --> 00:25:15.220 of publishing in the South before the North is 00:25:15.220 --> 00:25:18.039 important to me. It's a powerful final statement 00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:20.759 of intent for a writer who has spent his life 00:25:20.759 --> 00:25:24.220 wrestling with cultural power dynamics. He uses 00:25:24.220 --> 00:25:26.539 his platform to validate and elevate Southern 00:25:26.539 --> 00:25:30.019 literary voices and markets. So Coetzee may be 00:25:30.019 --> 00:25:32.339 alienated by all political language, but he is 00:25:32.339 --> 00:25:34.579 certainly not politically inert. His fiction 00:25:34.579 --> 00:25:36.460 and his commentary serve as powerful instruments 00:25:36.460 --> 00:25:39.289 of ethical critique. Let's delve into how he 00:25:39.289 --> 00:25:41.809 engaged with major political and moral flashpoints. 00:25:42.009 --> 00:25:44.829 Starting with South African politics, he, alongside 00:25:44.829 --> 00:25:47.470 writers like Andre Brink and Brighton Breitenbach, 00:25:47.690 --> 00:25:50.210 was a crucial voice in the anti -apartheid movement 00:25:50.210 --> 00:25:53.269 within Afrikaner literature. As he noted in his 00:25:53.269 --> 00:25:56.289 1987 Jerusalem Prize speech, he felt the moral 00:25:56.289 --> 00:25:59.450 burden of the regime deeply, describing the literature 00:25:59.450 --> 00:26:01.930 it produced as fundamentally in bondage. And 00:26:01.930 --> 00:26:04.410 after the transition to democracy, his novel 00:26:04.410 --> 00:26:07.440 Disgrace became instantly controversial. It was 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:09.559 interpreted by many as an allegory for South 00:26:09.559 --> 00:26:11.579 Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 00:26:11.859 --> 00:26:15.079 the TRC. Given that the TRC was viewed internationally 00:26:15.079 --> 00:26:18.200 as a crucial step toward national healing, it's 00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:20.220 interesting to see how Qatzi viewed it. Which 00:26:20.220 --> 00:26:22.519 was how? Well, his view was typically guarded 00:26:22.519 --> 00:26:26.400 and critical. He described the TRC as somewhat 00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:29.759 anomalous, a court of a certain kind based to 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:32.960 a large degree on Christian teaching. And he 00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:35.660 went on to suggest that the moral framework underpinning 00:26:35.660 --> 00:26:39.230 it. was accepted in their hearts by only a tiny 00:26:39.230 --> 00:26:42.069 proportion of the citizenry. That is a deep and 00:26:42.069 --> 00:26:44.349 profound critique of the institutional solution. 00:26:44.690 --> 00:26:46.970 He wasn't necessarily criticizing the intent 00:26:46.970 --> 00:26:50.009 of reconciliation, but the method. He was questioning 00:26:50.009 --> 00:26:52.410 whether a process rooted in specific culturally 00:26:52.410 --> 00:26:55.410 derived concepts like Christian forgiveness could 00:26:55.410 --> 00:26:58.329 genuinely resolve profound secular structural 00:26:58.329 --> 00:27:01.359 injustice in a diverse society. It speaks to 00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:03.900 his deep intellectual skepticism of any institution 00:27:03.900 --> 00:27:06.799 that claims universal moral authority. This critical 00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:09.019 distance defines his overall political stance. 00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:11.880 He avoids specified political orientations, stating 00:27:11.880 --> 00:27:14.140 that he is alienated by all political language, 00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:16.799 in fact. He rejects the binary entirely. He avoids 00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:18.799 the right, having seen enough of the Africana 00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:21.819 right. But feels there is no longer a left worth 00:27:21.819 --> 00:27:24.920 speaking of. He finds political rhetoric, especially 00:27:24.920 --> 00:27:28.339 with its recent economistic bent, even more repellent 00:27:28.339 --> 00:27:31.119 than it was decades ago. This stance allows him 00:27:31.119 --> 00:27:33.440 the intellectual freedom to apply his analytical 00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:36.480 brilliance to systems without being compromised 00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:39.900 by party allegiance. He operates in the space 00:27:39.900 --> 00:27:42.619 of pure critique outside the traditional political 00:27:42.619 --> 00:27:45.359 spectrum. This critical distance, however, does 00:27:45.359 --> 00:27:48.180 not make him silent. When fundamental moral lines 00:27:48.180 --> 00:27:50.759 are crossed globally, he intervenes with devastating 00:27:50.759 --> 00:27:54.509 clarity. In 2005, he delivered a shocking and 00:27:54.509 --> 00:27:57.609 widely publicized criticism of contemporary anti 00:27:57.609 --> 00:28:00.349 -terrorism laws being adopted in Western democracies. 00:28:00.509 --> 00:28:02.829 The analogy he drew was incredibly harsh and 00:28:02.829 --> 00:28:05.569 deliberately provocative. It was. He stated that 00:28:05.569 --> 00:28:08.190 these new anti -terrorism laws, which often involve 00:28:08.190 --> 00:28:10.269 surveillance and the suspension of habeas corpus, 00:28:10.410 --> 00:28:12.730 were disturbingly similar to the oppressive legal 00:28:12.730 --> 00:28:14.890 framework of the apartheid state. The source 00:28:14.890 --> 00:28:17.150 material gives us the exact quote, and it pulls 00:28:17.150 --> 00:28:31.150 no punches. He said. That quote demands reflection. 00:28:31.609 --> 00:28:34.529 He is essentially accusing modern Western governments 00:28:34.529 --> 00:28:37.170 of utilizing methods of control and legal abuse 00:28:37.170 --> 00:28:39.450 that were perfected by one of the most reviled 00:28:39.450 --> 00:28:42.789 regimes of the 20th century. By calling the architects 00:28:42.789 --> 00:28:46.660 of apartheid pioneers, he reframes them. not 00:28:46.660 --> 00:28:49.180 as historical villains, but as precursors to 00:28:49.180 --> 00:28:52.079 current global security states. It's a mechanism 00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:54.539 for moral reckoning, forcing his audience to 00:28:54.539 --> 00:28:56.619 feel the full weight of the comparison. And his 00:28:56.619 --> 00:28:58.720 move to Australia didn't dull his ethical lens 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:00.920 on his new country either. He became a strong 00:29:00.920 --> 00:29:03.019 voice against Australia's immigration policies. 00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:06.400 Right. In 2016, he was a signatory to a letter 00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:08.660 condemning the government's controversial policy 00:29:08.660 --> 00:29:11.839 of offshore detention for asylum seekers, labeling 00:29:11.839 --> 00:29:14.960 those policies brutal and shameful. He is consistent. 00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:17.460 Whether the abuse of power is found in the US, 00:29:17.660 --> 00:29:20.380 South Africa, or Australia, his critical focus 00:29:20.380 --> 00:29:22.900 remains the same. The systemic cruelty enacted 00:29:22.900 --> 00:29:25.660 by the state against the vulnerable. We also 00:29:25.660 --> 00:29:28.420 see this strategic use of language in his commentary 00:29:28.420 --> 00:29:31.160 on the Israeli -Palestinian conflict. When he 00:29:31.160 --> 00:29:32.900 was attending the Palestine Festival of Literature 00:29:32.900 --> 00:29:36.619 in 2016, he was careful to avoid using the word 00:29:36.619 --> 00:29:39.339 apartheid. He argued that the term itself had 00:29:39.339 --> 00:29:42.019 become so loaded that it diverts one into the 00:29:42.019 --> 00:29:44.809 inflamed semantic wrangle. This is the mathematician 00:29:44.809 --> 00:29:48.289 in him again. Choosing the language that facilitates 00:29:48.289 --> 00:29:51.269 the clearest analysis, he recognized that using 00:29:51.269 --> 00:29:53.829 the term apartheid would immediately shift the 00:29:53.829 --> 00:29:56.470 discussion away from the facts and into a highly 00:29:56.470 --> 00:29:59.450 emotional semantic battle over definition. He 00:29:59.450 --> 00:30:01.430 chose instead to provide an analytical description 00:30:01.430 --> 00:30:04.069 of the lived reality. So what language did he 00:30:04.069 --> 00:30:06.430 use to describe the situation in Jerusalem and 00:30:06.430 --> 00:30:09.210 the West Bank, allowing him to bypass the semantic 00:30:09.210 --> 00:30:11.710 controversy? He opted for a clinical descriptive 00:30:11.710 --> 00:30:15.109 analysis. He called it a system of enforced segregation 00:30:15.109 --> 00:30:18.049 based on religion and ethnicity put in place 00:30:18.049 --> 00:30:20.650 by an exclusive, self -defined group to consolidate 00:30:20.650 --> 00:30:23.410 the colonial conquest. In particular, to maintain 00:30:23.410 --> 00:30:25.990 and indeed extend its hold on the land and its 00:30:25.990 --> 00:30:28.569 natural resources. By focusing on concepts like 00:30:28.569 --> 00:30:31.470 enforced segregation, colonial conquest and natural 00:30:31.470 --> 00:30:35.029 resources, he delivers a powerful critique without 00:30:35.029 --> 00:30:37.069 getting bogged down in the politically toxic 00:30:37.069 --> 00:30:40.150 debate surrounding a single charged term. Now, 00:30:40.150 --> 00:30:42.509 perhaps the most sustained and visible. cause 00:30:42.509 --> 00:30:45.309 championed by Coetzee, and one explicitly woven 00:30:45.309 --> 00:30:48.329 into his fiction, is animal rights. Absolutely. 00:30:48.569 --> 00:30:51.309 He is a passionate advocate and a dedicated vegetarian. 00:30:51.829 --> 00:30:54.650 This moral stance is central to his later work, 00:30:54.789 --> 00:30:56.950 elevating the ethics of human -animal interaction 00:30:56.950 --> 00:30:59.210 to the same level of intellectual seriousness 00:30:59.210 --> 00:31:01.890 as political oppression or colonial cruelty. 00:31:02.349 --> 00:31:04.970 Since 2004, he has served as a patron for the 00:31:04.970 --> 00:31:07.730 Australian Animal Protection Organization, Voiceless. 00:31:08.089 --> 00:31:10.609 His works actively confront the reader's complicity 00:31:10.609 --> 00:31:13.190 in industrialized suffering. The Lives of Animals, 00:31:13.490 --> 00:31:16.549 Disgrace, Elizabeth Costello, even shorter pieces 00:31:16.549 --> 00:31:18.980 like The Old The Woman and the Cats, all utilize 00:31:18.980 --> 00:31:21.019 narrative dissonance or philosophical polemic 00:31:21.019 --> 00:31:23.119 to force a confrontation with animal cruelty. 00:31:23.319 --> 00:31:25.440 In many ways, the suffering animal becomes the 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:28.059 ultimate outsider in his moral universe. And 00:31:28.059 --> 00:31:30.819 this wasn't just a literary stance. He translated 00:31:30.819 --> 00:31:33.799 it into direct institutional activism. We have 00:31:33.799 --> 00:31:36.539 that striking anecdote from 2008 where he intervened 00:31:36.539 --> 00:31:38.779 at the behest of fellow novelist John Banville 00:31:38.779 --> 00:31:42.200 to protest Trinity College. Dublin's continued 00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:44.380 use of vivisection on animals for scientific 00:31:44.380 --> 00:31:46.859 research. He issued a public statement that was 00:31:46.859 --> 00:31:49.420 typically direct and morally uncompromising. 00:31:49.460 --> 00:32:00.940 He stated clearly, Trinity College brings shame 00:32:00.940 --> 00:32:03.480 on itself by continuing with the practice. He 00:32:03.480 --> 00:32:05.420 positioned the practice not just as scientifically 00:32:05.420 --> 00:32:08.480 outdated, but as morally shameful, linking the 00:32:08.480 --> 00:32:10.700 institution's reputation directly to its ethical 00:32:10.700 --> 00:32:13.279 choices. What's particularly compelling and, 00:32:13.299 --> 00:32:15.700 well, tragic about this anecdote is the follow 00:32:15.700 --> 00:32:18.500 up. The source notes that years later in 2017, 00:32:18.779 --> 00:32:20.680 the practice not only persisted, but actually 00:32:20.680 --> 00:32:23.319 increased. Trinity used approximately 3000 rats 00:32:23.319 --> 00:32:27.319 and 21000 mice in 2016 alone. Banville admitted 00:32:27.319 --> 00:32:29.640 their efforts had been to no avail. This detail 00:32:29.640 --> 00:32:32.259 just highlights the sheer difficulty of translating 00:32:32.259 --> 00:32:35.039 moral authority, even that of a Nobel laureate, 00:32:35.059 --> 00:32:38.299 into institutional change against entrenched 00:32:38.299 --> 00:32:41.140 scientific and bureaucratic structures. The moral 00:32:41.140 --> 00:32:44.059 argument was clear, but the resistance was overwhelming. 00:32:44.359 --> 00:32:46.920 And this frustration with institutional stagnation 00:32:46.920 --> 00:32:50.400 eventually drove him to attempt to engage the 00:32:50.400 --> 00:32:54.160 political system directly on this issue. In 2014, 00:32:54.500 --> 00:32:56.940 he attempted to become a candidate for the Dutch 00:32:56.940 --> 00:32:59.579 party for the animals in the European Parliament 00:32:59.579 --> 00:33:02.099 election. This shows the depth of his commitment. 00:33:02.200 --> 00:33:04.759 He was attempting to transform his literary moral 00:33:04.759 --> 00:33:07.579 authority into tangible political representation. 00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:12.039 But his attempt failed due to. bureaucratic constraints. 00:33:12.380 --> 00:33:14.700 His candidacy was rejected by the Dutch election 00:33:14.700 --> 00:33:17.240 board because he couldn't prove legal residency 00:33:17.240 --> 00:33:20.279 within the European Union. That failure encapsulates 00:33:20.279 --> 00:33:22.039 the recurring theme of his life, doesn't it? 00:33:22.099 --> 00:33:24.480 The moral clarity of the intellectual outsider 00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:26.839 constantly hitting the wall of political and 00:33:26.839 --> 00:33:29.180 institutional reality. Whether it's the U .S. 00:33:29.220 --> 00:33:31.079 residency system, the post -apartheid government, 00:33:31.200 --> 00:33:34.579 or the EU's bureaucratic hurdles. This has been 00:33:34.579 --> 00:33:37.380 an incredibly deep and nuanced exploration of 00:33:37.380 --> 00:33:40.839 a truly singular intellect. Let's try to synthesize 00:33:40.839 --> 00:33:43.880 the essential paradox of J .M. Cosi. Okay. He's 00:33:43.880 --> 00:33:46.140 a computer scientist who used analytical brilliance 00:33:46.140 --> 00:33:48.920 to craft humanist fiction. The double booker 00:33:48.920 --> 00:33:51.559 winner who maintains a monkish self -discipline 00:33:51.559 --> 00:33:54.470 and avoids the public stage. the South African 00:33:54.470 --> 00:33:56.730 writer who became a determined Australian voice 00:33:56.730 --> 00:33:59.589 and the moralist who is completely repelled by 00:33:59.589 --> 00:34:02.109 political language. He is the living embodiment 00:34:02.109 --> 00:34:05.029 of the Swedish Academy's citation, the man who, 00:34:05.130 --> 00:34:07.569 in innumerable guises, portrays the surprising 00:34:07.569 --> 00:34:10.690 involvement of the outsider. His life, from his 00:34:10.690 --> 00:34:13.090 dual ancestry and his mathematical training to 00:34:13.090 --> 00:34:15.630 his self -imposed exile and his stylistic shift 00:34:15.630 --> 00:34:18.090 away from naturalism, demonstrates a strategic 00:34:18.090 --> 00:34:20.849 commitment to occupying the fringes. So the essential 00:34:20.849 --> 00:34:23.530 takeaway for you, the learner, is... the value 00:34:23.530 --> 00:34:26.429 of critical distance. Cosi's journey shows us 00:34:26.429 --> 00:34:28.570 that intense, sustained, critical engagement 00:34:28.570 --> 00:34:31.650 often requires stepping back. Physically, by 00:34:31.650 --> 00:34:33.849 moving continents to avoid political compromise. 00:34:34.429 --> 00:34:37.369 Formally, by constantly shifting genres to avoid 00:34:37.369 --> 00:34:40.570 stylistic complacency. And linguistically, by 00:34:40.570 --> 00:34:42.909 questioning the very language used for power 00:34:42.909 --> 00:34:45.690 and political debate. His biography is a testament 00:34:45.690 --> 00:34:47.849 to the fact that the most profound insights into 00:34:47.849 --> 00:34:50.510 human morality and systemic injustice rarely 00:34:50.510 --> 00:34:52.730 come from those who are comfortably seated at 00:34:52.730 --> 00:34:55.289 the center of power or culture. They come from 00:34:55.289 --> 00:34:58.590 those who, like Coetzee, choose or are forced 00:34:58.590 --> 00:35:01.250 to position themselves deliberately on the fringes, 00:35:01.349 --> 00:35:04.070 refusing the easy comfort of belonging so that 00:35:04.070 --> 00:35:06.190 they might see the system with clear analytical 00:35:06.190 --> 00:35:08.690 eyes. I think we have to end where he lands, 00:35:08.829 --> 00:35:11.150 right on that tension between language and polemic. 00:35:12.030 --> 00:35:14.500 Coetzee writing about himself. Once noted, he 00:35:14.500 --> 00:35:17.480 was alienated by all political language, in fact. 00:35:17.579 --> 00:35:20.079 Right. Yet he continues to write powerful polemics, 00:35:20.119 --> 00:35:21.820 whether disguised as the lectures of Elizabeth 00:35:21.820 --> 00:35:25.480 Costello or as raw, unflinching fiction. So the 00:35:25.480 --> 00:35:27.599 language of politics is inherently repellent 00:35:27.599 --> 00:35:30.440 and corrupted if it breeds arrogance and obscures 00:35:30.440 --> 00:35:33.300 truth. What responsibility does a successful 00:35:33.300 --> 00:35:35.659 writer have to subvert that language to force 00:35:35.659 --> 00:35:38.420 a moral reckoning? What alternative form can 00:35:38.420 --> 00:35:40.800 ethical communication take when conventional 00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:43.179 political channels like running for the European 00:35:43.179 --> 00:35:46.300 Parliament fail entirely? That is the question. 00:35:46.440 --> 00:35:49.199 Coetzee's life and his relentless work leaves 00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:49.840 us to ponder.