{"title":"J M Coetzee’s ‘Jesus’ Trilogy: A Search for Answers","authors":"Hania A. M. Nashef","doi":"10.1080/1013929X.2023.2167405","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The 2019 novel by the South African-Australian Nobel laureate, J M Coetzee, The Death of Jesus, is a third book in a sequence that includes Jesus in its title; like its predecessors it follows the lives of a recently constructed family in the dystopian Spanish-speaking towns of Novilla and Estrella. The surreal trilogy, which began with The Childhood of Jesus (2013), and then The Schooldays of Jesus (2016), presents us with unreal worlds, leaving us searching for meaning. This fable-like fantasy, which expands the author’s ‘late style’, challenges the genre of fiction itself. Typical of late style, the trilogy resists closure and resolution. The debated ideas are generated by characters who were forced to forsake their memories and histories. Even though the protagonists begin to embody the very ideas they debate, answers are not forthcoming.","PeriodicalId":52015,"journal":{"name":"Current Writing-Text and Reception in Southern Africa","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current Writing-Text and Reception in Southern Africa","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1013929X.2023.2167405","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The 2019 novel by the South African-Australian Nobel laureate, J M Coetzee, The Death of Jesus, is a third book in a sequence that includes Jesus in its title; like its predecessors it follows the lives of a recently constructed family in the dystopian Spanish-speaking towns of Novilla and Estrella. The surreal trilogy, which began with The Childhood of Jesus (2013), and then The Schooldays of Jesus (2016), presents us with unreal worlds, leaving us searching for meaning. This fable-like fantasy, which expands the author’s ‘late style’, challenges the genre of fiction itself. Typical of late style, the trilogy resists closure and resolution. The debated ideas are generated by characters who were forced to forsake their memories and histories. Even though the protagonists begin to embody the very ideas they debate, answers are not forthcoming.
南非裔澳大利亚人、诺贝尔文学奖得主J·M·库切(J M Coetzee) 2019年的小说《耶稣之死》(The Death of Jesus)是第三部以耶稣为标题的小说;和前作一样,它讲述了一个新组建的家庭在反乌托邦的西班牙语城镇诺维拉和埃斯特雷拉的生活。从2013年的《耶稣的童年》到2016年的《耶稣的学生时代》,超现实主义三部曲向我们展示了虚幻的世界,让我们寻找意义。这种寓言般的幻想,扩展了作者的“晚期风格”,挑战了小说本身的类型。典型的晚期风格,三部曲抵制结束和解决。这些有争议的观点是由被迫放弃记忆和历史的人物产生的。即使主角开始体现他们辩论的想法,答案也不会出现。
期刊介绍:
Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa is published bi-annually by Routledge. Current Writing focuses on recent writing and re-publication of texts on southern African and (from a ''southern'' perspective) commonwealth and/or postcolonial literature and literary-culture. Works of the past and near-past must be assessed and evaluated through the lens of current reception. Submissions are double-blind peer-reviewed by at least two referees of international stature in the field. The journal is accredited with the South African Department of Higher Education and Training.