"In September 2003 the South African novelist J. M. Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, confirming his reputation as one of the most influential writers of our time. J. M. Coetzee and the Idea of the Public Intellectual addresses the contribution Coetzee has made to contemporary literature, not least for the contentious interventions his work makes in South African political discourse and the field of postcolonial studies." "From Socrates and Aristotle to Edward Said, Ngugi, Arundhati Roy, and Wole Soyinka, the debate over the role of the intellectual in society has a long history. As South Africa has passed from colonialism through apartheid to the postapartheid era, this debate has been particularly urgent, and writing and intellectualism have been profoundly politicized activities." "If one understands writing as necessarily a public activity, then J. M. Coetzee, despite his well-known reserve, has been very much a participant in the debate. By engaging self-consciously with the ethics of writing in his critical essays and all his works of fiction, often through the portrayal of the conscience-stricken white writer, he has deliberately placed himself in the public domain." "J. M. Coetzee and the Idea of the Public Intellectual engages with the wide range and context of the ethical and political concerns and ideas in Coetzee's writing. These illuminating new essays will reward anyone interested in the tension and interplay of ideas, literature, and politics, or seeking an introduction to this Nobel Prize winner's work. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET