What is it about?
As we now know, Coetzee's novel "Life & Times of Michael K" (1983) was written under the influence of Kleist's story "Michael Kohlhaas" (1810). What is less well known is what it really owes to Kleist beyond literary inspiration. In providing a response to this question, I adduce a providential framework derived from the Biblical story of Job, showing how the desire for justice in Kleist, Coetzee (and also Kafka) requires this framework but also chafes against it. The result of the examination of three "Kohlhaas novels" is the finding that the modern concept of justice still requires metaphysics.
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Why is it important?
The article contributes to today's ethical discussions by showing how imaginative literature of the type under consideration (the "Kohlhaas novels" of Kleist, Coetzee and Kafka) is fruitfully engaged with foundational questions of justice. It suggests that modern theories of justice, in the final analysis, are not tractable outside a metaphysical framework.
Perspectives
This article engages with the intuition many readers have (as I do) that imaginative literature in its best expressions helps us understand and "do" ethics, just as it helps us in other ways with the daily tasks of living.
Tim Mehigan
University of Queensland
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Coetzee and Kafka with Kleist (and Job): Debating the ‘Kohlhaasian Solution’, November 2023, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004686557_009.
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