Professor Sue Kossew
PhD (University of New South Wales), MA (University of East Anglia), BA, Hons (University Cape Town)
Biography
I have lived in Zambia, South Africa, the UK and Australia and have degrees from the Universities of Cape Town, East Anglia and New South Wales. My PhD (UNSW) was a postcolonial reading of the works of J.M. Coetzee and André Brink. I am on the editorial boards of Journal of Commonwealth Literature and New Literatures Review. I have published numerous journal articles on postcolonial and South African literature. My book Writing Woman, Writing Place: Contemporary Australian and South African Fiction (Routledge, 2004, repr. as paperback, 2006) was described as a “relevant and riveting…perspective on…the geographic construction of gender and race identity” (Gender, Place and Culture). My other books include: Pen and Power: A Post-colonial Reading of J. M. Coetzee and André Brink (Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1996) described as a study that “contributes much to our understanding of the new South Africa and also necessitates a re-evaluation of the postcolonial” by Prof. Dominic Head (Research in African Literatures, 2000); Critical Essays on J.M. Coetzee (G.K. Hall, 1998); and Re-Imagining Africa: New Critical Perspectives (New York: Nova Science, 2001). I have recently published a book entitled "Lighting Dark Places: Essays on Kate Grenville" (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi Press, 2010) and am awaiting the publication of a co-edited collection of essays entitled "Strong Opinions: J.M. Coetzee and the Authority of Contemporary Fiction" (New York: Continuum Press, 2011), eds. Chris Danta, Sue Kossew and Julian Murphet.
Research interests
J.M. Coetzee
I have published extensively on the work of J. M. Coetzee and continue to be fascinated by his work. I co-convened an international conference entitled Coetzee in Australia in January 2009 at UNSW.
Postcolonial and Australian women writers
I am currently exploring the representation of violence in literature particularly in the work of women writers. In addition, I continue to research the work of South African and Australian women writers in particular, including Zoë Wicomb, Nadine Gordimer and Kate Grenville.
International research collaborations
I am part of an international Ireland/Australia research project on the Uses of the Past which involves collaboration between Irish and Australian scholars in an interdisciplinary group.
Selected bibliography
- Kossew, S (ed.) (2010). Lighting Dark Places: Essays on Kate Grenville (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi Press).
- Kossew, S. (2009) 'Border Crossings: Self and Text in J. M. Coetzee’s Slow Man' in Boehmer, E., Eaglestone, R. and Iddiols, K. edited J. M. Coetzee in Context and Theory. London, Continuum Books, Pages 60-70.
- Kossew, S. (2004) Writing Woman, Writing Place : Contemporary Australian and South African Fiction London and New York, Routledge.
- Kossew, S. (1998) Critical essays on J.M. Coetzee. New York, G.K. Hall and London, Prentice Hall International
- Kossew, S. (1998) Critical Essays in World Literature: J. M. Coetzee. New York, G.K.Hall.
- Kossew, S. (1996) Pen and Power: A Post-colonial Reading of J. M. Coetzee and André Brink. Amsterdam and Atlanta, Rodopi
Competitive grants
- A Violent Turn: Representations of Violence, Resistance and Complicity in Canadian Women’s Writing (2002), Canadian Government Faculty Research Award.