World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

John Maxwell Coetzee

ジョン・マクスウェル・クーツィー

John Maxwell Coetzee

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1940-02-09 (Cape Town, Union of South Africa)
Nationality
South African, Australian
Languages
English, Afrikaans, Dutch
Residence History
Cape Town, South Africa → Worcester, South Africa → London, United Kingdom → Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Career

Occupations
novelist, essayist, screenwriter, literary critic, linguist, translator, professor
Active Years
1964-2025
Affiliations
University of Cape Town (lecturer, professor, emeritus), University of Texas at Austin (student), State University of New York at Buffalo (lecturer), University of Adelaide (honorary research fellow, patron)
Memberships
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL), Member of the American Philosophical Society, Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
Influenced By
Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, Rainer Maria Rilke, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Zbigniew Herbert

Education

University of Cape Town
Arts/Science (English & Mathematics) / English and Mathematics
Degree: BA (Hons)
Period: 1957–1961
Year of Graduation: 1960
Country: South Africa
BA (Honours) in English 1960; BA (Honours) in Mathematics 1961
University of Texas at Austin
Humanities / Bibliography / Old English / Stylistics
Degree: PhD
Period: 1965–1969
Year of Graduation: 1969
Country: United States
PhD with a computer-aided stylistic analysis of Samuel Beckett's English prose

Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature
2003
Organization: Swedish Academy
Result: 受賞
Booker Prize
1983
Work: Life & Times of Michael K
Organization: Booker Prize Foundation
Result: 受賞
Booker Prize
1999
Work: Disgrace
Organization: Booker Prize Foundation
Result: 受賞
CNA Literary Award
1977
Organization: Central News Agency
Result: 受賞
CNA Literary Award
1980
Organization: Central News Agency
Result: 受賞
CNA Literary Award
1983
Organization: Central News Agency
Result: 受賞
Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society
1987
Organization: Jerusalem Prize Committee
Result: 受賞
Lannan Literary Award for Fiction
1998
Organization: Lannan Foundation
Result: 受賞
Order of Mapungubwe (Gold)
2005
Organization: Government of South Africa
Result: 受章
Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)
2025
Organization: Government of Australia (Governor-General)
Result: 叙勲
Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Africa region)
2000
Work: Disgrace
Organization: Commonwealth Foundation
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Dusklands

1974 Novel

Coetzee's first novel. A two-part experimental work addressing colonialism and violence, set against contexts including South Africa and the Vietnam War.

colonialismviolencenarratives of history
Translations
  • Dusklands (translations available)

Waiting for the Barbarians

1980 Novel (allegorical)

An allegorical novel about power, bureaucracy and torture; it questions violence and conscience through the imagined threat of 'barbarians'.

powertortureethics
Translations
  • Waiting for the Barbarians (Japanese translation)

Life & Times of Michael K

1983 Novel

Set in apartheid-era South Africa, this spare, allegorical tale of alienation and survival won the 1983 Booker Prize.

alienationsurvivalidentity
Translations
  • Life & Times of Michael K (Japanese translation)

Disgrace

1999 Novel 224 pages

A novel of personal fall and possible redemption set in post-apartheid South Africa. Winner of the 1999 Booker Prize; it addresses nationhood, sexuality and violence.

guilt and redemptionviolencerace relations
Adaptations
  • [Film] Disgrace / Steve Jacobs (2008)
Translations
  • Disgrace (Japanese translation)

The Pole and Other Stories / The Pole

2023 Short stories / Novel

A recent collection reflecting interests in Polish ancestry and European history; some material was first published in Spanish in 2022.

memoryheritagehistory
Translations
  • The Pole (translations may vary by edition)

Bibliography

  • Dusklands (1974)
  • In the Heart of the Country (1977)
  • Waiting for the Barbarians (1980)
  • Life & Times of Michael K (1983)
  • Foe (1986)
  • Age of Iron (1990)
  • The Master of Petersburg (1994)
  • Disgrace (1999)
  • Elizabeth Costello (2003)
  • Slow Man (2005)
  • Diary of a Bad Year (2007)
  • The Childhood of Jesus (2013)
  • The Schooldays of Jesus (2016)
  • The Death of Jesus (2019)
  • The Pole and Other Stories (2023)

Adaptations

  • Film adaptation: Disgrace (2008)

Translations of Works

  • Many works have been translated into numerous languages, including Japanese

Style & Themes

Literary Style
concise, analytical proseintrospective and allegorical narrationexperimental narrative structures mixing autobiographical and fictional elements
Recurring Motifs
outsider perspectivelanguage and poweranimals and ethicsguilt, redemption, and violence

Legacy

J. M. Coetzee is one of the most highly regarded contemporary English-language writers, internationally celebrated with the Nobel Prize and multiple major literary awards. His rigorous prose and probing explorations of colonialism, ethics and language continue to have wide academic and cultural impact.

Academic Societies

  • Royal Society of Literature
  • American Philosophical Society
  • Australian Academy of the Humanities (Honorary)

Archives

  • Papers held at the Harry Ransom Center (University of Texas)
  • Related holdings at the Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide

In Popular Culture

  • Influence on popular culture including the film adaptation of Disgrace (2008)

Quotes

  • “in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider.”
    Source: Swedish Academy (Nobel Prize in Literature press release, 2003) (2003)

Trivia

  • He was the first writer to win the Booker Prize twice (1983 and 1999).
  • He moved to Australia and became an Australian citizen in 2006.
  • He is an advocate for animal rights and is a vegetarian.