Stranger shores by J.M. Coetzee

Coetzee’s early collection of essays, Stranger Shores, begins with ‘What is a classic?’ exploring T. S. Eliot’s idea that civilisation has its roots in Rome, and therefore the originary classic must be Virgil’s Aeneid. Turning then to Bach and the classics of music, Coetzee comes to the conclusion that the classic is that which survives and that the role of criticism is to interrogate the classic.

This sets the context for the essays that follow: essays on classical writers such as Defoe, Richardson, Kafka, Dostoevsky, Turgenev among the more familiar, but also including more modern writers such as Byatt, Rushdie and Doris Lessing.

Coetzee extends his gaze wider than Europe; there are also a number of essays devoted to Middle Eastern and South African writers such as Mahfouz, Mazrui, Pringle, Rooke, Breytenbach and Paton.

The essays would be of interest to students of literature, for criticisms of particular writers, or for a better understanding of the world view of Coetzee himself.

There are two more volumes of essays, Inner workings, and Late essays providing insight into some of the world’s greatest writers.

Themes: Classics, Literature, Criticism.

Helen Eddy