Thursday night, novelist and former UB professor J.M. Coetzee read his work to a mix of faculty and students in the Center for the Arts, marking the last in a series of events centered on the author last week.
Coetzee, who taught at UB from 1968 to 1971 and again as the Edward H. Butler visiting professor of English in 1984 and 1986, is the only author to win the Booker Award twice, according to Barbara Bono, professor of English.
Bono said that the English Department and the Edward H. Butler Chair sponsored the lecture because of Coetzee's ties to the university and his status as a distinguished lecturer.
"We're bringing him here as a model of intellectual seriousness," Bono said. "It seems that even a casual encounter with his fiction functions as a kind of lure into his intellectual life, so people should start reading."
Shaun Irlam, chairman of the department of comparative literature, introduced Coetzee as "one of South Africa's most eminent writers."
Coetzee read from one of his most recent works, "Elizabeth Costello and the Problem of Evil," a novel about a woman who intends to give a lecture about evil in Holland but struggles to understand this intangible concept herself.
"All that I'm trying to present in this story is someone in whom took her own confusion upon me, and the entirety of the person because she engaged in a confrontation (with evil) and experienced it, that she responds to, but doesn't quite understand," said Coetzee.
Bono said that growing up in South Africa helped shape the author's body of work, which includes seven fiction novels and several pieces of non-fiction work.
History, she said, corresponds with Coetzee's life and career.
"He was discovering his identity as a writer during the period of apartheid in South Africa," she said.
Irlam said he was pleased with the turnout of the event.
"This reading was 'classic Coetzee' in the sense that what he presented to us was a doubleness of reflection," Irlam said. "He, as a writer, was writing about a writer who was writing about something, which is the functional equivalent of a hall of mirrors."
"I'm here for two reasons. First, he's been the subject of my artwork, having met him when he was teaching at UB," said Harvey Breverman, a SUNY distinguished professor. "It's also a great celebration to have in our midst, one of the world's great novelists and brilliant thinkers."
Birger Vanwesenbeeck, a graduate student in comparative literature, is a long-time Coetzee fan, having admired his work since he first read "Waiting for Barbarians."
"I'm a literature major, and I read Coetzee for the first time five years ago," Vanwesenbeeck said. "I thought it would be interesting to hear him talk."
Coetzee's work is on display in the Lockwood library, in a physical and online exhibit which will be up until the end of the month.
A decorated speaker, Coetzee has received numerous forms of recognition, including the Jerusalem prize, the Irish Times International Fiction prize and the Lannan Award for fiction.
For more information on Coetzee or the exhibit, visit http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/exhibits/coetzee
