Disgrace
Encyclopedia
Disgrace is a South Africa
n novel
by J. M. Coetzee, published in (1999). It won the Booker Prize. The author was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
four years after its publication.
He is twice-divorced and dissatisfied with his job as a communications lecturer, teaching one specialized class in romantic literature at a technical university in Cape Town
in post-apartheid South Africa
. His "disgrace" comes when he seduces one of his students and then does nothing to protect himself from the consequences. Lurie is working on Lord Byron at the time of his disgrace, and "the irony is that he comes to grief from an escapade that Byron would have thought distinctly timid."
He is dismissed from his teaching position, after which he takes refuge on his daughter's farm in the Eastern Cape. For a time, his daughter's influence and natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. Shortly after becoming comfortable with rural life, he is forced to come to terms with the aftermath of an attack on the farm in which his daughter is raped and impregnated and he is violently assaulted.
, "[a]ny novel set in post-apartheid South Africa is fated to be read as a political portrait, but the fascination of Disgrace is the way it both encourages and contests such a reading by holding extreme alternatives in tension, salvation, ruin." In the new South Africa, violence is unleashed in new ways, and Lurie and his daughter become victims. The novel takes its inspiration from South Africa's contemporary social and political conflict, and offers a bleak look at the country.
As in all of his mature novels, Coetzee here deals with the theme of exploitation. His favorite approach has been to explore the innocuous-seeming use of another person to fill one's gentler emotional needs. This is a story of both regional and universal significance. The central character is a confusing person, at once an intellectual snob who is contemptuous of others and also a person who commits outrageous mistakes. His story is also local; he is a white South African male in a world where such men no longer hold the power they once did. He is forced to rethink his entire world at an age when he believes he is too old to change and, in fact, should have a right not to. This theme, about the challenges of aging both on an individual and societal level, leads to a line, "No country, this, for old men," an ironic reference to the opening line of the W. B. Yeats poem, "Sailing to Byzantium
". Furthermore, Lurie calls his preference for younger women a "right of desire", a quote taken up by South African writer André Brink
for his novel "The Rights of Desire".
This is Coetzee's second book (after Life and Times of Michael K) where man is broken down almost to nothing before he finds some tiny measure of redemption in his forced acceptance of the realities of life and death. Coetzee has always situated his characters in extreme situations that compel them to explore what it means to be human. Though the novel is sparse in style, it covers a number of topics: personal shame, the subjugation of women, a changing country, animal rights, and romantic poetry and its symbolism.
Another important theme in the novel is the difficulty or impossibility of communication
and the limits of language
. Although Lurie teaches communications at Cape Town Technical University and is a scholar of poetry, language often fails him. Coetzee writes:
The novel explores the difficulty of communication between men and women, between parents and children, and between humans and animals. David Lurie cannot speak about the attack with his daughter, Lucy, because she says that he will never understand what happened to her. He turns to other forms of communication: first, he tries to find a way to commune with animals, who can sense subtle, non-verbal emotions; at the same time, he attempts to write an opera
about the poet Lord Byron, told from the perspective of Byron's mistress Teresa.
A 2006 poll of "literary luminaries" by The Observer
newspaper named the work as the "greatest novel of the last 25 years" written in English outside the United States.
A film adaptation of Disgrace
starring John Malkovich
had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 2008, where it won the International Critics' Award.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by J. M. Coetzee, published in (1999). It won the Booker Prize. The author was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
four years after its publication.
Plot summary
David Lurie is a South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his good looks, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his own daughter.He is twice-divorced and dissatisfied with his job as a communications lecturer, teaching one specialized class in romantic literature at a technical university in Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
in post-apartheid South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. His "disgrace" comes when he seduces one of his students and then does nothing to protect himself from the consequences. Lurie is working on Lord Byron at the time of his disgrace, and "the irony is that he comes to grief from an escapade that Byron would have thought distinctly timid."
He is dismissed from his teaching position, after which he takes refuge on his daughter's farm in the Eastern Cape. For a time, his daughter's influence and natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. Shortly after becoming comfortable with rural life, he is forced to come to terms with the aftermath of an attack on the farm in which his daughter is raped and impregnated and he is violently assaulted.
Reception and interpretation
According to The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, "[a]ny novel set in post-apartheid South Africa is fated to be read as a political portrait, but the fascination of Disgrace is the way it both encourages and contests such a reading by holding extreme alternatives in tension, salvation, ruin." In the new South Africa, violence is unleashed in new ways, and Lurie and his daughter become victims. The novel takes its inspiration from South Africa's contemporary social and political conflict, and offers a bleak look at the country.
As in all of his mature novels, Coetzee here deals with the theme of exploitation. His favorite approach has been to explore the innocuous-seeming use of another person to fill one's gentler emotional needs. This is a story of both regional and universal significance. The central character is a confusing person, at once an intellectual snob who is contemptuous of others and also a person who commits outrageous mistakes. His story is also local; he is a white South African male in a world where such men no longer hold the power they once did. He is forced to rethink his entire world at an age when he believes he is too old to change and, in fact, should have a right not to. This theme, about the challenges of aging both on an individual and societal level, leads to a line, "No country, this, for old men," an ironic reference to the opening line of the W. B. Yeats poem, "Sailing to Byzantium
Sailing to Byzantium
"Sailing to Byzantium" is a poem by William Butler Yeats, first published in the 1928 collection The Tower. It comprises four stanzas in ottava rima, each made up of eight ten-syllable lines. It uses a journey to Constantinople as a metaphor for a spiritual journey. Yeats explores his thoughts and...
". Furthermore, Lurie calls his preference for younger women a "right of desire", a quote taken up by South African writer André Brink
André Brink
André Philippus Brink, OIS, is a South African novelist. He writes in Afrikaans and English and is a Professor of English at the University of Cape Town....
for his novel "The Rights of Desire".
This is Coetzee's second book (after Life and Times of Michael K) where man is broken down almost to nothing before he finds some tiny measure of redemption in his forced acceptance of the realities of life and death. Coetzee has always situated his characters in extreme situations that compel them to explore what it means to be human. Though the novel is sparse in style, it covers a number of topics: personal shame, the subjugation of women, a changing country, animal rights, and romantic poetry and its symbolism.
Another important theme in the novel is the difficulty or impossibility of communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
and the limits of language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
. Although Lurie teaches communications at Cape Town Technical University and is a scholar of poetry, language often fails him. Coetzee writes:
Although he devotes hours of each day to his new discipline, he finds its first premise, as enunciated in the Communications 101 handbook, preposterous: 'Human society has created language in order that we may communicate our thoughts, feelings, and intentions to each other.' His own opinion, which he does not air, is that the origins of speech lie in songSongIn music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
, and the origins of song in the need to fill out with sound the overlarge and rather empty human soul.
The novel explores the difficulty of communication between men and women, between parents and children, and between humans and animals. David Lurie cannot speak about the attack with his daughter, Lucy, because she says that he will never understand what happened to her. He turns to other forms of communication: first, he tries to find a way to commune with animals, who can sense subtle, non-verbal emotions; at the same time, he attempts to write an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
about the poet Lord Byron, told from the perspective of Byron's mistress Teresa.
A 2006 poll of "literary luminaries" by The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
newspaper named the work as the "greatest novel of the last 25 years" written in English outside the United States.
A film adaptation of Disgrace
Disgrace (film)
Disgrace is an Australian film set in South Africa, adapted for the screen by Anna Maria Monticelli from the 1999 J. M. Coetzee novel, Disgrace...
starring John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 2008, where it won the International Critics' Award.
External links
- 'The Trouble with JM Coetzee', review of Disgrace in the Oxonian Review
- "Postmetaphysical Literature: Reflections on J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace"; in Perspectives on Political Science 33, 1 (Winter 2004), 4-9.
- "A Moderated Bliss": J. M. Coetzee's 'Disgrace' as Existential Maturation"; in J. M.Coetzee: Critical Perspectives. Edited by Kailash C. Baral. New Delhi: Pencraft, 2008. 161-169.
- Disgrace (film) on IMDB