Public lecture – Prof. dr. Derek Attridge (University of York)
‘A Cat Isn’t a Set of Questions’: Reason and Ethics in J. M. Coetzee’s Fiction
Public Lecture
Date: December 4, 2015
Time: 11.00-13.00
Venue: PC Hoofthuis 1.05, Spuistraat 134, Amsterdam
Registration required
This lecture will take up the powerful challenge that J.M. Coetzee’s writing makes to the idea of a rational ethics. In comments made in propria persona he implies that ethical judgements are made prior to the reasons we offer for them. Professor Attridge will examine the ways in which Coetzee’s fiction stages this issue, and ask what are the implications of this approach for our understanding of literature’s contribution to ethical life.
