Elizabeth Costello
A highly-regarded Australian feminist fiction with very strong feelings about people who are cruel to animals. Costello has been invited to fictional Appleton College to take part in a prestigious lecture series on that subject. Costello’s presentations are actually lectures written by author Coetzee, “The Philosophers and the Animals” and “The Poets and the Animals.”
John Bernard
Elizabeth’s son who is employed at Appleton College. He is a professor of physics and astronomy. Her story is told in the third person, but primarily through the perspective of her son.
Norma Bernard
John's wife. Tension exists between her and Elizabeth and this tension is exemplified when—despite having them eat in a separate room—she serves her children chicken for dinner.
Abraham Stern
Poet-in-Residence at Appleton College is notably absent from Costello’s lecture series because he has taken exception to the extremities of her pro-animal rights stance. A comparison between the slaughter of animals to make meat and the genocide of Jews during the Holocaust is particularly galling to Stern.
Thomas O'Hearne
Professor of Philosophy at Appleton who presents an ideological alternative to the animal rights issue from a global sociological perspective. O’Hearne counters that the animal rights movement is mostly located within industrialized nations and may actually be more a representation of Western superiority over the Third World.
Academic Responders
When Costello’s lecture story comes to an end, the rest of the book is comprised of responses to her story by actual, real-life scholars from a variety of academic disciplines. These responses are directed to specific areas of how Coetzee transforms his own lectures on the philosophy of the treatment of animals into a meta-fictional story starring Costello related to their field of study. The responders consist of:
Marjorie Garber: Harvard University’s Center for Literary and Cultural Studies
Peter Sanger: Princeton University Center for Human Values professor of bioethics
Wendy Doniger: University of Chicago professor of the history of religions
Barbara Smuts: University of Michigan professor of psychology and anthropology
