Empathy as a Step to Divinity: A Study of Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello
Keywords:
Tyrannical, Cynical, Human empathy, HumanityAbstract
The present article explores how wilful ignorance could lead to lack of empathy on the part of humans in relation to other humans and species. It also brings out how Coetzee has succeeded in stretching human reason and imagination further to appreciate the sanctity of life of one and all. He probes the answers to the critical question through portraying the real and imaginative interaction among animals, mortals and imaginary immortals in literature. Coetzee’s novel seems to be a crusade for the defenceless animals and humans against the victorious and tyrannical humans. The wilful ignorance of anguish of life—be they animals or humans and cynical reasoning is bereft of understanding and cripples human empathy that alone can lift humanity from its present state to angelic state.
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