Ileana Dimitriu (International) assertion Ileana Dimitriu i(26488878 works by)
Gender: Female
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1 J M Coetzee’s The Death of Jesus - Considerations of Living and Dying Ileana Dimitriu , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Current Writing : Text and Reception in Southern Africa , vol. 34 no. 2 2022; (p. 172-187)

'The article focuses on Coetzee’s The Death of Jesus while referring also to the earlier two novels in what is called the ‘Jesus trilogy’. Instead of pursuing the trail of literary studies – novels of migration, of the postcolonies of the South, of whether in their formal representation the novels are allegories or not allegories – I turn towards religious studies. As the novels do, I grant significance to Coetzee’s ideas on a moral education in contexts of ideological duplicity; on the struggle of the soul between passion and reason; and on a message that society anticipates from an exceptional child who wishes to be a saviour. Beneath such concerns, I argue, we encounter the palimpsest of an older story: that of Jesus of Nazareth, to which the name ‘Jesus’ in the title of each novel should have pointed us but did not. Like the almost invisible author, the reader in secular times is reluctant, perhaps, to venture beyond earthly belief and engage with the challenge of what Walter Benjamin termed the ‘spiritual rag picker’ of ‘weak messianic power’. How does The Death of Jesus, or indeed Coetzee, struggle with such a challenge?' (Publication abstract)

1 JM Coetzee, the Truth of “Second-order Questions” Ileana Dimitriu , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Current Writing : Text and Reception in Southern Africa , vol. 29 no. 1 2017; (p. 56-65)

'The aim of this review article is to point to recent trends in Coetzee’s writings. Increasingly liberated from the pressure of conforming to codes and expectations of fictional representation, Coetzee’s recent works boldly foreground “second-order questions” (Attwell Citation2015): time and mortality, longing for affection, parenting and authenticity, non-belonging amidst rootlessness. Concerns about life “in time” in the writer’s more recent work point beyond the urge to represent historical facts with verisimilitude.' (Publication abstract)

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