Submitted By- Arunima Sethi

Submitted To- Mudita Mohile

Published in 1999, Coetzee’s Disgrace can be classified as a postmodern, postcolonial and a post-apartheid text by a
white author. The novel uses the technique of free, indirect discourse in which the life of the protagonist David Lurie
is narrated in the third person and the present tense is used. The title describes the state of social and spiritual disgrace
that the protagonist enters as a consequence of his affair with one of his students, Melanie.
The novel is set shortly after the end of apartheid in South Africa. As a postcolonial novel it examines the continuing
effects of colonialism on a society. The novel examines the postcolonial and post-apartheid time period where the
main characters of the novel, who are white adjust to the shift from being the dominance to being a part of the crowd.
It, therefore, is a reflection of how the whites accept and adjust to a new social position in the postcolonial era and try
to coexist with the blacks which comes at a huge cost.
The novel opens with the introduction of the protagonist David Lurie who is unhappily employed as a professor of
communications at a university in Cape Town. He is twice divorced and is a client to Soraya to fulfil his sexual
needs. One day Soraya drops him as her client and as a result of his unfulfilled desperate needs, he rapes one of his
students, Melanie. Melanie files a complaint against David and he refuses to confess about the same at his enquiry.
He quits and visits his daughter Lucy. As the novel progresses, Lucy is raped and David doubts Petrus. As a result he
indulges in a fight with Petrus and Pollux and gets to know that Pollux raped Lucy and she is pregnant with his child.
Lucy demands David to change his attitude and as a result he now works with Bev and helps her euthanise animals.
The climax involves David going to Isaac’s home and apologising for his deeds. He further engages his full attention
in the Banjo Opera and attacks Pollux. While Lucy and Petrus agree to marry, David euthanise his favourite dog as
the ending to the novel.
The novel deals with the problems of race and power in the postcolonial times in South Africa. It aims to represent
the shift of power through binaries such as black and white, native and immigrant etc., in the new South Africa. The
novel illustrates the struggles in the lives of colonisers as well as colonised. The novel is where both blacks and
whites search for a peaceful way to coexist after the scars that is inflicted on the society due to colonisation. Coetzee
uses various symbols to demonstrate the objectification of women. Disgrace is full of examples of how there are
startling similarities in the ill treatment of women and animals. The treatment of animals represent the human
tendency to show power and subjugate, abuse, exploit and objectify. The novel shows how David mistreated the
animals before Lucy’s rape, however after the incident he is a changed man and now talks and indulges most of his
time in taking care of the animals.
Disgrace also shows that after colonialism and facing problems of racism and violence it is not easy to achieve a fully
healed community that is ready to coexist. According to Coetzee, History tends to repeat itself and it is shown when
Lucy is raped. The novel very clearly speaks of the debts that are still prevailing after the Colonisation. Lucy’s rape
by three black men and her acceptance of the same shows the sacrifices, the whites have to make in order to live in a
postcolonial and post-apartheid society. It is evident that the blacks are not ready to forget what all they faced. Petrus,
who initially refers to himself as the “dog-man” in the old South Africa, rapes and overpowers Lucy in the so-called
“new” South Africa. Lucy’s decision to not file a complaint against her rape is her “wish” to bow down “before
history”.
Sexual violence and the problem of sex is prevalent throughout the text. Disgrace shows the oppressor and the
oppressed in exchanged roles. While, initially, David (white) rapes her student who is black, towards the end Lucy is
raped by the black men. Coetzee aims to portray that even in a post-apartheid society the problems of race are not
over. The protagonist David uses sex to fill his emptiness and exercise his power. Sex is also seen as a dominant force
in case of Lucy’s rape. Along with sexual violence, suffering of the characters is also an important theme. Physical,
emotional and mental suffering is at the centre of everyone’s life in the novel. Along with suffering hate also is
implicitly highlighted in the novel. Lucy feels the hatred of the black men while she is getting raped and David shows
hatred when he engages with a fight with Petrus and Pollux.
Conclusively, Coetzee creates the novel to portray that everything comes at a cost. It is never easy for the colonisers
exist with the colonised. However through Lucy‘s character, Coetzee aims to say that something good can be
extracted from the pain that the past has given and this will only happen if both the whites and blacks live with grace,
humility and adjust to each other. They must leave aside the life of disgrace and try to coexist with each other. It is an
engrossing tale of a David’s acts of humiliation, his punishment and finally the act of redemption. It is a novel that
showcases the actual society we are leaving in even in the twenty first century where people are vindictive, lack
humanity and empathy.

Bibliography:
Coetzee, J.M. Disgrace. Noida (U.P): Random House Publishers Pvt. Ltd.,2000.
Vanky Anna-Marie. A Higher Life: A Postcolonialist Analysis of Coetzee’s Disgrace. 2008.
Miaomiao WANG. Searching for Self-identity: A Postcolonial Study of J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace. 2013.
Dhaliwal Singh Jagjeet. A Critical and Literary Analysis of J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace. 2008.