Life of Animals - A Book Written for Everyone to Read

Author: J.M. Coetzee ([South Africa]) translated by Zhu Ziyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Nothing can prevent us from putting ourselves in another's shoes to consider another life. Discussing animal rights without the form of a paper but through a novelistic approach, Coetzee likely has a deeper meaning. Because the language of a paper is mostly rational and abstract, and this very language is what humans use to deprive animals of their rights. — Zhao Baisheng, in The Life of Animals, published in 1999 by Princeton University Press, included in the Human Values Research Series. This book adopts the writing method of an academic publication, taking Coetzee's two narrative lectures as the main text, which also serves as a text for scholars to interpret from their respective perspectives. The academic explorations in the introduction and the four articles following the main text significantly help readers understand Coetzee's works in a broader space of thought and knowledge. J.M. Coetzee is a renowned novelist and the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His previous works exhibit a repeatedly constructed trajectory, meaning no two of his works use the same creative techniques. Even his Nobel Prize acceptance speech left listeners unsure whether he was telling his own story or reading a newly completed, purely fictional short story. It's hard to imagine a writer with such a bizarre creative trajectory could sincerely, like the protagonist of his works, Elizabeth Costello, with fierce determination, deliver a declaration or interview on animal rights. The content of this book covers anthropology, zoology, philosophy, and theology, with different knowledge backgrounds jointly creating an exceptionally vast literary and academic space where they shine together, undoubtedly posing a challenge to the translator's knowledge structure.