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“Stands for Itself Certainly”Coetzee's Jesus Trilogy

“Stands for Itself Certainly”Coetzee's Jesus Trilogy J. M. Coetzee's trilogy of novels with Jesus in their titles, published between 2013 and 2019, has bewildered many reviewers. This essay review proposes that that bewilderment stems from a misconception of the novels’ allegorical dimension and of the possible meanings evoked by their titles. The trilogy is the consummation of Coetzee's meditations on analogy and linguistic skepticism; on the ontological status of fictions; on the eschatological impulsion of writing; and on memory's capacity for true recognitions that have no empirical basis. The trilogy presents us with a world that affirms a purely immanent life. Coetzee tests this world dialogically by subjecting its self-identical “here” to the nonidentical repetitions of analogical thought, through which an “elsewhere” impinges on the “here.” The trilogy's deepest questions turn on the metaphysical scope of this “elsewhere”: that is, on whether the vertiginous depths of analogy participate in an underlying substrate of meaning, recognizable as “the Word of God.” http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Common Knowledge Duke University Press

“Stands for Itself Certainly”Coetzee's Jesus Trilogy

Mutter, Matthew
Common Knowledge , Volume 27 (3) – Aug 1, 2021
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60 pages

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Copyright
Copyright © 2021 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0961-754X
eISSN
1538-4578
DOI
10.1215/0961754x-9265297
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

J. M. Coetzee's trilogy of novels with Jesus in their titles, published between 2013 and 2019, has bewildered many reviewers. This essay review proposes that that bewilderment stems from a misconception of the novels’ allegorical dimension and of the possible meanings evoked by their titles. The trilogy is the consummation of Coetzee's meditations on analogy and linguistic skepticism; on the ontological status of fictions; on the eschatological impulsion of writing; and on memory's capacity for true recognitions that have no empirical basis. The trilogy presents us with a world that affirms a purely immanent life. Coetzee tests this world dialogically by subjecting its self-identical “here” to the nonidentical repetitions of analogical thought, through which an “elsewhere” impinges on the “here.” The trilogy's deepest questions turn on the metaphysical scope of this “elsewhere”: that is, on whether the vertiginous depths of analogy participate in an underlying substrate of meaning, recognizable as “the Word of God.”

Journal

Common Knowledge – Duke University Press

Published: Aug 1, 2021

References

  • On Music
    Schopp, Ludwig McMahon, John J.SJ Taliaferro, Robert Catesby, et al
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    Bellin, Roger
  • Translator's Introduction
    Betz, John R. Przywara, Eric Betz, John R. Hart, David
  • Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote
    Borges, Jorge Luis Hurley, Andrew
  • Incarnation in Don Quixote
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    Coetzee, J. M.
  • In Conversation
    Coetzee, J. M. Constantini, Soledad
  • At the Gate of the Valley
    Herbert, Zbigniew Valles, Alissa
  • The Envoy of Mr Cogito
    Herbert, Zbigniew Valles, Alissa
  • Mr Cogito and the Imagination
    Herbert, Zbigniew Valles, Alissa
  • Mr Cogito's Eschatological Premonitions
    Herbert, Zbigniew Valles, Alissa
  • The Dogmatic Significance of the Question of the Historical Jesus
    Jüngel, Eberhard Webster, John
  • The Truth about Sancho Panza
    Kafka, Franz Willa, Muir, Edwin Tania, Stern, James Glazer, Nahum N.
  • Introduction
    McClatchy, J. D. McClatchy, J. D.
  • Losing His Way
    Nelson, Casandra
  • The Remains of the Britons
    Oates, Joyce Carol Ishiguro, Kazuo
  • Saving Grace
    Oates, Joyce Carol Coetzee, J. M.
  • ‘The Master of the Unsaid.’
    O'Toole, Fintan Coetzee, J. M.
  • A Barren End to a Bizarre Trilogy
    Preston, Alex Coetzee, J. M.
  • The Boy of La Mancha: J. M. Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus
    Seshagiri, Urmila
  • The Letter of Lord Chandos
    von Hofmannsthal, Hugo McClatchy, J. D.
  • Transcendence and Representation
    Ward, Graham Schwartz, Regina
  • Squall Lines
    Wood, James Coetzee, J. M.
  • On Music
    Schopp, Ludwig McMahon, John J.SJ Taliaferro, Robert Catesby, et al
  • A Strange Allegory: J. M. Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus
    Bellin, Roger
  • Translator's Introduction
    Betz, John R. Przywara, Eric Betz, John R. Hart, David
  • Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote
    Borges, Jorge Luis Hurley, Andrew
  • Incarnation in Don Quixote
    Castro, Américo Gilman, Stephen King, Edmund L.
  • He and His Man: Nobel Lecture
    Coetzee, J. M.
  • In Conversation
    Coetzee, J. M. Constantini, Soledad
  • At the Gate of the Valley
    Herbert, Zbigniew Valles, Alissa
  • The Envoy of Mr Cogito
    Herbert, Zbigniew Valles, Alissa
  • Mr Cogito and the Imagination
    Herbert, Zbigniew Valles, Alissa
  • Mr Cogito's Eschatological Premonitions
    Herbert, Zbigniew Valles, Alissa
  • The Dogmatic Significance of the Question of the Historical Jesus
    Jüngel, Eberhard Webster, John
  • The Truth about Sancho Panza
    Kafka, Franz Willa, Muir, Edwin Tania, Stern, James Glazer, Nahum N.
  • Introduction
    McClatchy, J. D. McClatchy, J. D.
  • Losing His Way
    Nelson, Casandra
  • The Remains of the Britons
    Oates, Joyce Carol Ishiguro, Kazuo
  • Saving Grace
    Oates, Joyce Carol Coetzee, J. M.
  • ‘The Master of the Unsaid.’
    O'Toole, Fintan Coetzee, J. M.
  • A Barren End to a Bizarre Trilogy
    Preston, Alex Coetzee, J. M.
  • The Boy of La Mancha: J. M. Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus
    Seshagiri, Urmila
  • The Letter of Lord Chandos
    von Hofmannsthal, Hugo McClatchy, J. D.
  • Transcendence and Representation
    Ward, Graham Schwartz, Regina
  • Squall Lines
    Wood, James Coetzee, J. M.