The Wake Of Colonialism, The Outset Of An Odyssey

Disgrace wins great honor as well as severe criticism for its author J. M. Coetzee. The publication of Disgrace makes Coetzee the first novelist that has won the British highest honor for fiction—the Booker Prize—twice. However, many critics regard Coetzee's Disgrace as an"improper"novel. They consider that Disgrace not only disgraces the black, but also disgraces the black political power in the South African society. However, this thesis raises an opposite view and intends to prove that the theme of Disgrace lies in that both colonizers and the colonized, whether the black or the white, in the wake of colonialism, begin to search for a new way for them to coexist in the new South Africa. It begins with the hallmark of colonialism branded on post-apartheid time and puts forward that it is the colonialist policies that leave the"disgrace"for both colonizers and their offspring, which is a chain reaction of colonial evils. They become the victim of the whole colonial domination and take up the burden to expiate for the colonial guilt. The colonialists'original sin leaves an unquenchable scar for both colonizers and the colonized. Therefore, people in colony become disoriented and helpless. With Disgrace as an enlightenment, both the black and the white are trying their best to search for a new way for them to coexist in peace and harmony.