Disgrace, Desire, and Degradation: The Experience of Intrapersonal Reconciliation and Power Relations in Post Apartheid South Africa
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document in english
history 1789 to present
presentation
date published 19/02/2008
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SummaryJ.M. Coetzee uses the third person omniscient point of view to tell the story of the unraveling of David Lurie’s career and the proceeding time he spends with his daughter, Lucy, in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Through this point of view, Coetzee creates a voice that is distant: he evokes extreme emotion in the reader through the complexity of his characters while nevertheless remaining ostensibly veiled in an objective and unyielding tone of voice. It is through this narration that Coetzee discloses the emotional angst and uncertainty that plague both David and Lucy at different points throughout the novel. Coetzee offers a comparison of the varying degrees to which David and Lucy are disgraced and endure shame. While their emotions are precipitated by opposing forces and manifest themselves differently, thus revealing the contrast in their cognitive makeups, they both experience a disgrace that is analogous to the infamy of apartheid and undergo significant, yet muddled internal transformations that mirror the complexity of post apartheid South Africa.
Table of Contents
- Coetzee begins his story by describing David Lurie's life and work in the urban center of Cape Town.
- In many ways, Lucy lives a lifestyle in complete opposition to her father.
- Just as David undergoes tremendous changes in his life after he leaves Cape Town.
- Lucy's rape, in this way, can be seen as indicative of the painful history of the apartheid era.
- Equally telling is Lucy's decision to keep the child after she finds out that she is pregnant.
- After his visit to their home, however, David returns to Cape Town.
- In addition to his changing relationship with Lucy, David's work with Bev Shaw also proves transformative.
- While David appears to have changed in some significant ways, he is still fundamentally a man of desire.
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