The textual provenance of J.M. Coetzee’s ninth novel

(2003) is of unusual traceability. Of the eight “lessons” and postscript which make up the novel, seven of the individual sections had previously appeared in print from 1997-2002. By deduction only “Lesson 7: Eros” and “Lesson 8: At the Gate” are identifiable as appearing for the first time upon the publication of

in 2003. A number of these had also emerged earlier as lectures given by Coetzee. (For a detailed history of the augmentation of these lectures into printed short stories and the collation of these stories into chapters for

see Attridge [192-196].) Attridge shows that it is likely that Coetzee had no overall plan in mind for

…

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Citation: Hyde, Franklyn. "Elizabeth Costello". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 May 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13147, accessed 25 April 2024.]