In this article, I argue that J. M. Coetzee’s multigeneric text, Elizabeth Costello (2003. London: Vintage Books), may be read as developing a voice for the new millennium. Coetzee can be seen to be approaching, through the figure of Elizabeth Costello, a new dimension in human/animal relations. This is one that refuses to subordinate animals to the power of human speech and writing. Moving equally away from anthropocentrism, and from notions of the ‘anthropological machine’, the dimension could be described as biocentrism, or as an approach to ecological ethics. Central to my argument is Jacques Derrida’s seminal essay ‘The Animal that Therefore I Am’ ([1997] 2002. Critical Inquiry 28 (2): 369–418) which I suggest is an intertext for Elizabeth Costello because its thinking is so congruent with Coetzee’s. I place my analysis of the Derrida text between my first and final sections on Elizabeth Costello, as the Derrida text throws light both on Costello’s initial anthropocentrism and, through Derrida’s concept of the animot, on the biocentrism towards which I argue Costello is moving.

中文翻译：

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JM Coetzee 的 Elizabeth Costello：从人类中心主义到生物中心主义？

在本文中，我认为 JM Coetzee 的多类文本 Elizabeth Costello (2003. London: Vintage Books) 可以被解读为为新千年发声。通过伊丽莎白·科斯特洛（Elizabeth Costello）的形象，可以看出库切正在接近人类/动物关系的一个新维度。这是一种拒绝让动物屈从于人类语言和写作力量的作品。同样远离人类中心主义，远离“人类学机器”的概念，这个维度可以被描述为生物中心主义，或生态伦理学的一种方法。我的论点的核心是雅克德里达的开创性论文“因此我是动物”（[1997] 2002.Critical Inquiry 28 (2): 369–418），我建议它是伊丽莎白科斯特洛的互文，因为它的思想与库切的。