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Courtesy of Princeton UP.
Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 The Wounded Animal: J. M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In 1997, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist J. M. Coetzee, invited to Princeton University to lecture on the moral status of animals, read a work of fiction about an eminent novelist, Elizabeth Costello, invited to lecture on the moral status of animals at an American college. Coetzee's lectures were published in 1999 as The Lives of Animals, and reappeared in 2003 as part of his novel Elizabeth Costello; and both lectures and novel have attracted the critical attention of a number of influential philosophers–including Peter Singer, Cora Diamond, Stanley Cavell, and John McDowell.

'In The Wounded Animal, Stephen Mulhall closely examines Coetzee's writings about Costello, and the ways in which philosophers have responded to them, focusing in particular on their powerful presentation of both literature and philosophy as seeking, and failing, to represent reality–in part because of reality's resistance to such projects of understanding, but also because of philosophy's unwillingness to learn from literature how best to acknowledge that resistance. In so doing, Mulhall is led to consider the relations among reason, language, and the imagination, as well as more specific ethical issues concerning the moral status of animals, the meaning of mortality, the nature of evil, and the demands of religion. The ancient quarrel between philosophy and literature here displays undiminished vigor and renewed significance.' (Publisher's summary)

Notes

  • Table of Contents:

    ABBREVIATIONS ix

    CHAPTER ONE: Introduction: The Ancient Quarrel 1

    PART ONE: THE LIVES OF ANIMALS 19

    CHAPTER TWO: Elizabeth Costello's Lecture: Stories, Thought-Experiments, and Literal-Mindedness 21

    CHAPTER THREE: Elizabeth Costello's Lecture: Three Philosophers and a Number of Apes 36

    CHAPTER FOUR: Food for Thought: Two Symposia 58

    CHAPTER FIVE: Food for Thought: A Third Symposium 69

    CHAPTER SIX: Food for Thought: An Uninvited Guest? 95

    CHAPTER SEVEN: Elizabeth Costello's Seminar: Two Poets and a Novelist 110

    CHAPTER EIGHT: Elizabeth Costello's Seminar: Primatology and Animal Training, Philosophy and Literary Theory 122

    PART TWO: ELIZABETH COSTELLO 137

    CHAPTER NINE: Realism, Modernism, and the Novel 139

    CHAPTER TEN: Costello's Realist Modernism, and Coetzee's 162

    CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Body in Africa 184

    CHAPTER TWELVE: Evil as Obscenity 203

    CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Two Embodiments of the Kafkaesque 214

    CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Conclusion: Three Postscripts 231

    BIBLIOGRAPHY 253

    INDEX 257

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Princeton, New Jersey,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Princeton University Press ,
      2009 .
      image of person or book cover 3726158579612694398.png
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: xii + 259 pp.p.
      Edition info: 1st ed.
      ISBN: 1400837537, 9781400837533

Works about this Work

The Wounded Animal: J.M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy. By Stephen Mulhall James Carter , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Literature and Theology , June vol. 25 no. 2 2011; (p. 222-225)

— Review of The Wounded Animal: J. M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy Stephen Mulhall , 2009 single work criticism
Untitled Erik Grayson , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Modern Fiction Studies , Summer vol. 56 no. 2 2010; (p. 466-468)

— Review of The Wounded Animal: J. M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy Stephen Mulhall , 2009 single work criticism
Untitled Erik Grayson , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Modern Fiction Studies , Summer vol. 56 no. 2 2010; (p. 466-468)

— Review of The Wounded Animal: J. M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy Stephen Mulhall , 2009 single work criticism
The Wounded Animal: J.M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy. By Stephen Mulhall James Carter , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Literature and Theology , June vol. 25 no. 2 2011; (p. 222-225)

— Review of The Wounded Animal: J. M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy Stephen Mulhall , 2009 single work criticism
Last amended 10 Dec 2014 11:37:25
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