By Christina Cook

University of Pennsylvania senior Emmett Wynn wanted to get a glimpse of what graduate school would be like before diving into the application process. So the comparative literature and intellectual history major from Albuquerque, N.M., enrolled in “J. M. Coetzee: Fiction, History, Theory,” a graduate course in the English department and African Studies Program in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences. There he found not only the affirmation he sought but also a deep fascination with the work of this Nobel Prize-winning South African-born novelist.

Rita Barnard, the course professor and Wynn’s faculty sponsor in the University Scholars Program, remembers how his fascination began,

“A class discussion of Coetzee’s essay ‘Idleness in South Africa’ meshed with Emmett’s interest in European intellectual history, especially the rise of a Protestant work ethic, and remained in his mind all semester. He was particularly dazzling in his class comments on the three novels, Life and Times of Michael K, Foe and Age of Iron, that could be read through this critical lens.”

Wynn ended up not only writing his final paper on the idea of idleness in these three novels but also went on to conduct primary research during the summer to deepen this critical inquiry. For this project, Barnard steered Wynn to the University of Texas at Austin, Coetzee’s alma mater, where the author’s handwritten drafts and notebooks are permanently housed.

“The Ransom Library’s holdings on Coetzee are simply a treasure trove for any literary scholar,” Barnard says, “let alone a young one with the right intellectual background and training who could benefit from learning how to do archival work.”

Wynn’s research got off to a bumpy start, when he arrived at Ransom Library only to find that the materials related to The Life and Times of Michael K were all on long-term loan to the University of South Australia.

Not one to give up, Wynn turned his attention to another Coetzee novel, Foe, which turned out to be a fortuitous change of plan. The Foe drafts and notebooks yielded a wealth of new information on numerous aspects of Coetzee’s writing, including most of his major themes, and offered new insights into his writing process.

“Writing Foe was such a nightmare for him; it was so hard,” Wynn says.

Once Wynn secured the materials he needed, his learning curve as a primary researcher rose sharply. At first, he’d order boxes of the University of Cape Town exam booklets on which Coetzee drafted his novels, sit down with them and then not be exactly sure what to look for.

“You’re reading drafts that are sometimes 100 pages long, and it can get really discouraging when the gap between potentially relevant passages is starting to dilate, and you start to think maybe you should look somewhere else.”

Wynn honed his research methods quickly and soon struck gold.

Says Wynn, “I’d read up to a certain point in the drafts and then I’d read his notebooks to see what he was thinking about when he was writing them. And in the notebooks, he kept asking ‘What do I care about? I write these things and I don’t care about them.’ Eventually he realized that what he cared about was the character of Friday, the slave whose tongue has been cut out. It was really interesting to see him struggle so much to find what the book was about. This is a detail you can guess from just reading the novel, but, when you’re grappling with the manuscripts, you can find the exact point where he came to the realization.”

Wynn went on to find evidence of other ways that narrative and structural elements in Foe changed as the writing progressed. These textual clues helped him calibrate his research and lay the groundwork for a paper that can move beyond what’s been said before and propose new ideas about Coetzee’s work, which is exactly what Wynn is looking to do.

“If you do a certain type of critical work on Coetzee, if you say certain things, then you’re in the Coetzee ‘clique.’ But Coetzee scholarship is at an inflection point right now. A critical mass of scholars is wanting to do work that breaks away from this. When I write up my research paper I want to keep that in mind.”

According to Barnard, Wynn is the right student, at the right place, at the right time. She believes the Ransom archives offer scholars “much more to do and discover,” in this way promising to change Coetzee studies permanently. She says “something good will certainly come from Emmett Wynn’s research in Texas.”

Barnard has been a major source of guidance and support for Wynn, who says that one of the ways she has been particularly helpful is by advising him on how to navigate the particular challenges of researching an author who he says has a huge international following and a long history of critical engagement in his work.

“I’m lucky to be associated with someone as well established in the field as Professor Barnard.”

Wynn is currently working with Barnard on a creative piece about his experience conducting Coetzee research at the novelist’s alma mater and is considering using this piece for his requisite University Scholar presentation later in the year.

“Writing is really hard, and working through a narrative on your experience of it helps you think through the huge network of ideas that aren’t organized in your mind. A creative piece might be nice for the other University Scholars, too, because most of them aren’t literature scholars.”

He sees the opportunity to present to an audience outside the literary community as a good pressure to have. What interests him about literature scholarship is its broad appeal, and this is especially true of Coetzee’s work.

“He does have some opaque moments, but people who aren’t literary scholars can still pick up his books and enjoy them.”

Wynn is quick to voice his appreciation for Penn’s academically nurturing and supportive environment.

“I’ve been very lucky, and I mean this very honestly,” he says, “with the support from the University Scholars Program and the professors I’ve had. They’ve been fabulous in terms of helping me formulate my research. All a student needs is an ounce of really deep interest in something, and with their help, the rest falls into place.”