Introduction 17has persistently returned to motifs that illustrate both the corpo-
real nature of social power and the extent to which greatly unequal
power relations can impede cosmopolitan conciliation, even in those
who subscribe to cosmopolitan ideals. Tracing the ontological awak-
ening of the main character, I explore the role of physical suffering
in enabling a realization of the cosmopolitan priorities he exhibits. I
then explain how Coetzee’s use of narrative voice in the work, which
is often characterized by a sardonic tone, similarly creates a paradox-
ical, Levinasian form of empathy by establishing distance between
reader and protagonist.
As in the preceding chapter, I argue that the empathy Coetzee
stimulates is generated in such a way as to foreground an overarch-
ing ethical schema that is grounded in the material. This is particu-
larly so in the case of David Lurie in Disgrace , for whom the reader
establishes empathy only by coming to appreciate his singularity
as a physical and “flawed” human being. Furthermore, I contend
that this empathy and the ethical procedures that surround it form
an integral part of a broader material ethics that positions human
beings and animals on the same moral plane. This becomes even
more evident in my discussion of Elizabeth Costello , whose formal
and stylistic properties also work to produce in the reader a par-
adoxical sense of proximity and distance toward the protagonist.
This then prompts us to fashion a self-reflexive and material form of
empathy vis- à -vis the character.
Given the range in which the term “materiality” is applied to
these novels of Coetzee’s (which I demonstrate through close read-
ings of each book), as well as the fact that each deals with issues of
ethical import, I argue that his work presents ethics as operating
within what could be called a material “continuum,” which encom-
passes both the physicality of human power relations and the ineluc-
tably corporeal nature of life. I claim that by expanding its realm of
concern beyond the material conditions and experiences of humans,
Coetzee offers an ethical system that could be instructive to cosmo-
politan thought, enabling it to live up to its universal aspirations.
In the closing chapter I also apply the term “materiality” to refer
to the physical foundations upon which social power relations are
constructed. However, included in this application are also some of