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y separately published work icon Elizabeth Costello : Eight Lessons single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2003... 2003 Elizabeth Costello : Eight Lessons
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

In Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons, the eponymous protagonist is a retired author of international literary acclaim, who now spends her time giving guest lectures and interviews at scholarly events around the world. Old age has loosened, rather than reified, her ethical and literary convictions, and swelled her emotional reserves; rather than provide the staid academic wisdom expected of her, Costello offers provocative, unsettling opinions on issues such as animal rights, literary censorship, and the nature of belief - opinions she may or may not believe in herself. Profoundly aware of itself, Coetzee's novel is about human morality and mortality, but above all, about literature itself and the ethical responsibilities of writers and readers.

Notes

  • Acknowledgements

    An earlier version of Lesson 1 appeared under the title 'What is Realism?' in Salmagundi nos. 114-15 (1997).

    An earlier version of Lesson 2 appeared as 'The Novel in Africa', Occasional Paper no. 17 of the Townsend Center for the Humanities, University of California at Berkeley, 1999. Cheikh Hamidou Kane is quoted from Phanuel Akubueze Egejuru, Towards African Literary Independence (Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980), by permission of the author. Paul Zumthor is quoted from Introduction à la poésie orale, by permission of Éditions du Seuil.

    Lessons 3 and 4 were published, with responses by Peter Singer, Marjorie Garber, Wendy Doniger and Barbara Smuts, as The Lives of Animals (Princeton University Press, 1999).

    An earlier version of Lesson 5 appeared as 'Die Menschenwissenschaften in Afrika' / 'The Humanities in Africa' (Siemens Stifung, Munich, 2001).

    An earlier version of Lesson 6 appeared in Salmagundi nos. 137-38 (2003).

    'Letter of Elizabeth, Lady Chandos' was published by Intermezzo Press, Austin, Texas, in 2002.

    Some chapters of this book are revised versions of essays previously published in literary and cultural journals.

  • Listed in The New York Times Book Review's list of Notable Books for 2003.
  • Editions and translations have been updated for Elizabeth Costelle: Eight Lessons by Eilish Copelin as part of a Semester 2, 2013 scholar's internship. The selection and inclusion of these editions and translations was based on their availability through Australian libraries, namely through the search facilities of Libraries Australia and Trove (National Library of Australia).

    Given the international popularity of Coetzee's work, however, this record is not yet comprehensive. Editions and translations not widely available in Australia may not have been indexed. Furthermore, due to the enormous breadth of critical material on Coetzee's work, indexing of secondary sources is also not complete.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Knopf , 2003 .
      image of person or book cover 999431723395770344.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 233p.
      Edition info: 1st Australian ed.
      ISBN: 1740512650 (hbk.), 9781740512657 (hbk.)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Secker and Warburg ,
      2003 .
      image of person or book cover 1525286347506128137.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 233p.
      Edition info: 1st UK ed.
      ISBN: 0436206161 (hbk.), 9780436206160 (hbk.)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Viking ,
      2003 .
      image of person or book cover 8512450360336980019.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 230p.
      Edition info: 1st US ed.
      ISBN: 0670031305 (hbk.), 9780670031306 (hbk.)
    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2004 .
      image of person or book cover 5039564226247093454.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 233p.
      ISBN: 1740512758 (pbk.), 9781740512756 (pbk.)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Vintage UK ,
      2004 .
      image of person or book cover 515064854305441457.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 233p.
      ISBN: 0099461927 (pbk.), 9781740512756 (pbk.)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Penguin Books ,
      2004 .
      image of person or book cover 3295358805516888432.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 231p.
      ISBN: 0142004812 (pbk.), 9780142004814 (pbk.)
    • Toronto, Ontario,
      c
      Canada,
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Vintage Canada ,
      2004 .
      image of person or book cover 8184399225593511046.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 224p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 4 October 2004.
      ISBN: 9780099461920
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2020 .
      image of person or book cover 74812582957817487.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 256p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 2 June 2020.
      ISBN: 9781922268440
Alternative title: Elizabeth Costello
Language: Swedish
    • Stockholm,
      c
      Sweden,
      c
      Scandinavia, Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Brombergs Bokforlag ,
      2003 .
      image of person or book cover 1878076164951844688.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 196p.
      Edition info: 1st ed.
      Note/s:
      • "Av författaren till Onåd"
      ISBN: 9176089371, 9789176089378

Other Formats

  • Large print.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

Character Adrift (on the Sea of Language): Robinson Crusoe, Foe, Elizabeth Costello, and the Shipwreck of Realism James Corby , 2024 single work criticism
— Appears in: E-rea : Revue D'etudes Anglophones , vol. 21 no. 2 2024;

'For all the effort and artifice that writers put into affixing reality-testifying stability and solidity to their dramatis personae, it is in the nature of character to drift. Indeed, in a brutally abbreviated history of English literature, drift might be said to be the main characteristic of the story of “Character”, were character to be personified as a character. From Character’s origins as a broadly allegorical figure representing either vice or virtue in the epic poems and morality plays of the Middle Ages, via the lively realism and relative individualism conferred upon it by Chaucer, to the humanism of the Renaissance, where, in the hands of Shakespeare, it blossoms into a being of depth and complexity. Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear are not mere representations of ideas but are multi-faceted individuals with distinct personalities, their inner conflicts and moral dilemmas reflecting the human condition. From there, Character drifts into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where the rise of the novel gives it a new stage on which to perform. In the works of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and George Eliot, it becomes even more nuanced and detailed, mirroring the intricacies of social manners and the dynamics of an evolving society. Here, Character is no longer just a vehicle for a plot but an entity that could drive the story forward through its choices, changes, and growth. The twentieth century brings modernism, which sees Character undergoing yet another transformation. Now, Character often reflects the fragmented nature of modern existence, as seen in the works of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf; and, influenced by new thinking about psychology and the emergence of the practice and theory of psychoanalysis, Character is cast adrift on streams of consciousness, exploring the richly complex inner workings of the mind. With the advent of postmodernism, Character turns self-saboteur, militating against its own histories of verisimilitude and its drive towards ever-greater psychological authenticity. It plays knowingly both with the expectations of the credulous reader and with the conventions of literary writing, laying bare the workings of writerly artifice and blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction. Today, the character of Character is legion, traversing a diverse landscape, embodying a multitude of experiences, identities, and realities. And it has drifted beyond the confines of the printed page to new and familiar storyworlds in other media in an expansive post-literary field (on the latter point, see Callus and Corby, v).' (Introduction)

The Costello Project Andrew Van Der Vlies , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Bloomsbury Handbook to J. M. Coetzee 2023; (p. 169-180)
A Manual for Writers : Elizabeth Costello Nicholas Jose , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Like an Australian Writer 2021;
Literature and Identity Appropriation through Costello : Coetzee’s Dealings with the Migrant’s Crisis Ananya Chatterjee , Nisarga Bhattacharjee , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Transnational Spaces : India and Australia 2021; (p. 133-148)

'J.M. Coetzee is best known for winning the Nobel Prize for literature on the basis of writing about his South African homeland. He is also famous for his literary configuring of ethics in relation to human-animal relationships. Coetzee is now an Australian citizen. This chapter provides a reading of the international travels of author, implied author, character and text, with a central interest in the relation between appropriation and negotiations of a transnational identity. Australian woman Elizabeth Costello (lecturing abroad on animal rights) reappears in the regional space of Adelaide, making Elizabeth Costello, Slow Man and subsequent books textual spaces in which Coetzee wrestles with the enigmas of migration, the gaps in history and the ‘masquerade’ that is appropriation of ‘other’ identities. The chapter arises from transnational knowledge transfers, its authors being part of the growth of Australian Studies in India and beyond.'

Source: Abstract.

Da Tu Sha Zhi Hou Ru He Xie Shi Yi Li Sha Bai Ke Si Te Luo de Chuang Shang Nei He Yu Biao Zheng Zuo Lun Bo Hangbin , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Foreign Literatures , no. 3 2021; (p. 113-124, 162)
'Since the publication of Kutcher’s "Elizabeth Costello", the heroine Costello’s sensational remarks comparing human slaughter of animals to the Nazi’s extermination of Jews has caused an uproar. "How to write poems after the Holocaust" is a fulcrum of thinking that cannot be ignored in Coetzee's observation of the post-Auschwitz literary outlet and breakthrough in this work. It has infiltrated his profound examination of the suffering of living beings, the nature of human nature and literary writing. . The two important lectures "Animal Life" and "The Problem of Evil" show Costello's perceptual breakdown and self-reflection in various uncertain and contradictory situations, focusing on the grand narrative of enlightenment rationality, especially the specific history of the Holocaust The extreme horror and absolute evil derived from the context highlight the trauma of post-modern fiction art in the process of shocking human imagination and ethical threshold...' (Publication abstract)
Eventful Event Katharine England , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 6 September 2003; (p. 13)

— Review of Elizabeth Costello : Eight Lessons J. M. Coetzee , 2003 single work novel
An Invitation to Think Stella Clarke , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 6-7 September 2003; (p. 13)

— Review of Elizabeth Costello : Eight Lessons J. M. Coetzee , 2003 single work novel
Beyond Belief Anthony Macris , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 9 September vol. 121 no. 6389 2003; (p. 76-77)

— Review of Elizabeth Costello : Eight Lessons J. M. Coetzee , 2003 single work novel
Coetzee's Questions David Cohen , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 13 September 2003; (p. 14)

— Review of Elizabeth Costello : Eight Lessons J. M. Coetzee , 2003 single work novel
Shortcuts : The Essential Week : Fiction 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 13-14 September 2003; (p. 10)

— Review of Elizabeth Costello : Eight Lessons J. M. Coetzee , 2003 single work novel
Literary Names Give Award Fresh Life James Hall , 2004 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 30 April 2004; (p. 15)
The Tyranny of the Literal James Ley , 2005 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 270 2005; (p. 32-38)
James Ley examines the act of reading literary novels and the interpretation that must occur within each reader, including understanding the author's use of irony. Although the task may sometimes be challenging, Ley concludes that reading is 'a creative act. Unlike almost everything we are encouraged to consider entertainment, it is an active pursuit. Without this process of interpretation we cannot know ourselves.'
The Babushka Doll of Narrative Jane Sullivan , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 3 February 2007; (p. 30)
Tilting on the Axis of Evil: Australian Literature and Moral Relativism Dennis Haskell , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Explorations in Australian Literature 2006; (p. 1-16)
Dennis Haskell discusses depictions of moral relativism in Australian literature. He cites various examples including the characters of Elizabeth Costello (in Elizabeth Costello) and Ellen Roxburgh (in A Fringe of Leaves).
Shattering the Word-Mirror in Elizabeth Costello : J. M. Coetzee's Deconstructive Experiment Thorsten Carstensen , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , vol. 42 no. 1 2007; (p. 79-96)
The author aims to demonstrate 'how Elizabeth Costello undermines the conventions of mimetic referentiality and blends narrative and essay' (80), offering a Barthean 'writerly text,' 'allowing for an interpretive pluralism that elevates the reader to the rank of co-writer' (81).
Last amended 13 Jul 2021 12:46:08
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