The writing of politics and the politics of writing on reading Dovey on reading Lacan on reading Coetzee on reading . . .(?)

Abstract

Summary Prompted by the publication, in 1988, of Teresa Dovey's The Novels of J.M. Coetzee ‐ the first extended study of Coetzee's work ‐ this review‐essay takes issue with Dovey's total reliance, in her understanding of Coetzee, on contemporary theory (especially that derived from Lacanian psycho‐analysis) at the expense of the “mimetic” challenge of social intervention and commitment. Instead of viewing history as a discursive “play of difference”, the review‐essay argues that in a crisis‐ridden South Africa, if not in European and American intellectual circles, it might be necessary to “shut down” difference and affirm, even dogmatically, certain grand narratives of history. It is questionable whether either Coetzee or Dovey has found a voice which can address, productively, the urgent dilemmas of writing and politics in contemporary South Africa.