Subjection and Survival in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7841749
AutoresMaryam Beyad (University of Tehran, Iran), Hossein Keramatfar (0000-0001-8980-5507, University of Tehran, Iran, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume49
Fascículo2
Páginas152-170
Data de publicação2018-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Black Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0021-9347 • E-ISSN: 1552-4566
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0021934717745066
OpenAlexW2771398351
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas30

Coetzee’s novel, Disgrace, constructs a disturbing picture of the state of post-apartheid South Africa. It was generally criticized on the ground that instead of sharing national enthusiasm, it damaged the hopes of constructing a just and nonracial society by perpetuating racial stereotypes and fueling interracial violence. Disgrace, however, this paper holds, is a realistic, though gloomy, narrative of human condition. It is the scene of individuals struggling for survival amid existential and social forces in post-apartheid culture. Apartheid represented the era of victimization, subjection, and pathological attachments. It distorted intersubjective relations, turned humans’ interactions into power struggles, and produced deformed, stunted subjects. This paper examines the continuing presence of these deformed subjects in new South Africa and the violence that their presence occasions. The residual presence of character deformity and pathological intersubjectivity is a social reality of the new South Africa in Disgrace, a reality that diminishes the prospect of the promised sane society of post-apartheid era

Art · Enthusiasm · Existentialism · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · State (computer science · African cultural and philosophical studies · Gender Studies · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · South African History and Culture