"I offer a re-reading of JM Coetzee's novel, The Master of Petersburg (1994 Coetzee, J M. 1994. The Master of Petersburg. London: Secker & Warburg.), according to which I seek to answer the question: Why return to this particular novel today? In pursuing the question, I accord a greater directness than hitherto to both religious and political reference. My point is...

I explore two of Gordimer's novels, Burger's Daughter (1979) and No Time Like the Present (2012), the one written 'then', in apartheid times, the other written 'now', in post-apartheid times. Both, in different ways, subject personal dilemmas to political aspirations. Gordimer reminds the reader that she, as author, continued to test ideals against 'methodical doub...