An Analysis Of Disgrace From The Perspective Of Post-colonialism

J.M. Coetzee, an influential contemporary South-African novelist, wasawarded the Nobel Prize in2003. He precisely depicts the human nature undermany masks and is famous for post-colonialism embodied in his novels. Disgracehas caused wide concern in Western literary world since its publication. However, inChina there is few literary reviews about this novel and most of them are confined tosuch aspects as the discussion of humanity and narrative strategy the novel. To enrich thefield of research, my thesis tries to analyze Disgrace from the perspective ofpost-colonialism in three aspects.In Disgrace, Lurie, a fifty-two-year-old university professor is expelled byschool because he has a relationship with his student against her will. Afterwardshe comes to the farm managed by his twenty-six-year-old daughter, Lucy, who israped by three black people shortly after he arrives there. Petrus, who used to beLucy’s assistant, gains the right of managing the farm by means of his richexperience and Lucy’s desire for his protection. Through the vivid description ofthese three main characters, Coetzee presents to the readers that in post-colonialperiod, the white colonists gradually lose their dominant position and become theOther while the black regain their rights and establish their social position.This thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter One makes an analysis ofLurie’s cultural hybridity and Lucy’s biological hybridity through the theory ofhybridity as well as the black’ revenge upon the white through the theory of themimicry. The former colonized make through the apartheid period throughhybridity and mimicry while the white make use of the strategy of hybrity to existor coexist with the black whether in the colonial period or in the post-colonialperiod. Both of the two means for survival are under no circumstances steady.They predict the subversion of the relationship of the colonists and the colonizedin the new period.Chapter Two introduces the predicament of Lurie and Lucy as the Other,including the increasing power of the black and the depriving power of the white.Born in a nation with rigid hierarchy system, Lurie will not allow his privileges tobe deprived of. However, with the changing situation of South Africa and the awakening of the black consciousness, the white are caught in the position of beingmarginalized. This leads to the loss of Lurie’s privileges and afterwards his job.Lucy used to be an employer in the black community and lived a life away fromthe hubbub of the city. However, her happiness is cruelly shattered after she is raped bythree black people. Suffering from great physical and mental misery, she makes herdecision to not to lay a complaint against the rapists and submits to Petrus for hisprotection despite Lurie’s prevention. Lucy is determined to live the life of atoning forthe sins done by her ancestors, so she has no other choice but to accept the disgracebrought by the black. Lurie and Lucy’s misfortune and their concessions indicate that theblack are gaining power and begin to subvert the white’s dominant power. Therefore, inorder to continue their life in the new South Africa, Lurie and Lucy choose tocompromise and make reconciliation with the black.Chapter three makes an analysis of the marginalized status of the white men, themarginalized status of the female and the awakening of black consciousness through thetheory of subaltern. The marginalized status of the white men manifests itself by thedecline of the man’s sexual ability as well as the decline of English language, which usedto be a symbol of power. Being inferior and the lowest class, women are doomed to losetheir voice and become marginalized. That Petrus regains his rights and property in theend through resisting and subverting the privileged rights of the white marks the risingpower of the black people.Disgrace provides readers possibility to ponder on the human relationship in currentsociety. With the world’s political and economic globalization, people become moreestranged from each other because of different cultural beliefs, values, and religioustraditions and so on. This gap should be bridged; otherwise they must bear theconsequences of a clash of civilizations, which may at the same time increase thepossibility of hostility between nations. Just as Coetzee advocates that only if differentsubjects, nations or races can communicate with each other equally and peacefully, can aharmonious world be realized.