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South Africa

The computer poetry of J. M. Coetzee’s early programming career

June 28, 2017 - Rebecca Roach

Writer J. M. Coetzee’s early poetry is almost undecipherable. That’s because it was written in computer code.

Coetzee’s global reputation rests on his literary output, for which he received a Nobel Prize in 2003. Before he embarked on a career as a scholar and writer, the South African–born writer was a computer programmer in the early years of the industry’s development (1962–1965). I believe that this experience, while short, was vital for the development of Coetzee’s writerly project. While visiting the Ransom Center on a research fellowship, I examined Coetzee’s papers, which offer tantalizing clues about his neglected “other career.” [Read more…] about The computer poetry of J. M. Coetzee’s early programming career

Filed Under: Authors, Books + Manuscripts, Research + Teaching Tagged With: Abby Adams, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Research Fellowship Endowment, Atlas 2, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Born Digital, code, computer, computer poetry, computer programmer, computer programming, computing, digital archive, Fellowships, J. M. Coetzee, Kings College London, Nobel Prize, Rebecca Roach, South Africa, Youth

Video: Fellow discusses role of white South African writing in the human rights struggles in South Africa

September 22, 2015 - Marlene Renz

Gareth Griffiths is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Western Australia and a Professorial Fellow at the University of Wollongong. He came to the Ransom Center to begin researching the South African writer Stephen Gray’s archive. Griffiths wanted to examine “the role of white South African writing in the human rights struggles in South Africa.” [Read more…] about Video: Fellow discusses role of white South African writing in the human rights struggles in South Africa

Filed Under: Research + Teaching Tagged With: apartheid, Australia, bisexual, Fellowships, gay, human rights, literature, prejudice, South Africa, Stephen Gray

Research at the Ransom Center: “To Cape Town and back, via Mongolia”

January 7, 2014 - Abigail Cain

Perhaps one of the most distinctive features of J. M. Coetzee’s 1981 novel Waiting for the Barbarians is the setting—an imaginary empire, one lacking a specified place and time. Yet, when Coetzee penned the first draft of the novel, it was set in Cape Town, South Africa.

David Attwell, a Professor of English at the University of York in the U.K., provides an in-depth look> at the development of Coetzee’s third novel. He visited the Ransom Center this year to explore Coetzee’s archive.

Coetzee, who was born in Cape Town and graduated from the University of Cape Town, enrolled in The University of Texas at Austin in 1965 to pursue his Ph.D. in English, linguistics, and Germanic languages.

Filed Under: Authors, Books + Manuscripts, Research + Teaching Tagged With: Cape Town, David Attwell, J. M. Coetzee, South Africa, University of Texas at Austin, Waiting for the Barbarians

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Ransom Center Magazine is an online and print publication sharing stories and news about the Harry Ransom Center, its collections, and the creative community surrounding it.

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