Defends the literary & political integrity of the South African novelist J.M. Coetzee, arguing that he has absorbed the textual turn of postmodern culture while still addressing his nation's ethical crisis. As a form of "situational metafiction," Coetzee's novels are shown to reconstruct & critique some of the key discourses in the history of colonialism & apartheid from the 18th century to the present. While self-conscious about fictionmaking, Coetzee's work takes seriously the condition of the society in which it is produced. "Examines Coetzee's 6 novels against their historical, political, & intellectual background.".