Coetzee, J. M. (2019). Tolstoy, Beckett, Flaubert and others. 23 essays on world literature. Translated by S. Martynova. Moscow: Eksmo. (In Russ.)

Abstract

The review examines the Russian translation of the third collection of critical essays by the Nobel Prize winner J. M. Coetzee. The forming of Coetzee's literary-critical canon is suggested to have roots in his approach to world culture, free of the arrogance of an imperial view or the inferiority complex of a ‘cultural back¬water.' Common points between Coetzee's literary criticism and fiction include, firstly, attention to the core mechanisms of human psyche, which inevitably reveal a kind of transcendental dimension, and, secondly, the drive to revise the boundaries of the known literary universe. At the same time, the reviewed translation of Coetzee's essays is at times incoherent and shows an inexplicable disregard for an accurate use of relevant terminology. The translation suffers from stylistic flaws, terminology blunders and quasi-scholarly definitions, which devalue Coetzee's contribution to the Russian discourse of literary studies.