This seminar proposes to work through Coetzee’s texts in relation to the contemporary turn to ethics and politics. Indeed, it is in such a context that we can read Gayatri Spivak’s statement that she has “often felt that the formal logic of Coetzee’s fiction mimes ethical moves in an uncanny way.” While Coetzee’s writings have been most often situated in terms of postcolonial discourse (an engagement that we shall not altogether forgo), his texts also resonate powerfully with the questions that motivate recent literary criticism and theory. This seminar will focus principally on Coetzee’s novels but also address some of his autobiographical and critical writings. It will also engage some of the major critical interventions in Coetzee studies from the past decade.