Coatzee,_Disgrace

Set in post-apartheid South Africa, J.M. Coetzee's novel Disgrace tells the story of David Lurie, a 52-year-old South African university lecturer at Cape Town University. David is a academician with a somewhat routinely and insignificant living. He has a strong interest in romantic writers (Byron, Wordsworth and others) but is forced to dedicate most of his time to teach an unimportant course on "Communications" which he despises. In the beginning of the novel the narrator claims that: "For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well." In reality, sex has turned out to be a big setback for him, and is about to get a lot bigger. David is an old Casanova, but as age has taken its toll, he satisfies his baser longings once a week with a prostitute named Soraya. However, David's life takes an unexpected turn when he begins an affair with one of his students, a story he justifies with his romantic ideals. Letting her know that “a woman’s beauty does not belong to her alone … she has a duty to share it”. His affair is revealed and the old Casanova is subjected to a "battue". Being accused of sexual impropriety, David is forced to leave the university in disgrace, and moves to live his daughter Lucy, a collective farmer and animal caregiver in Salem. Lucy lives alone, helped only by a man named Petrus. If you turn to the novel's first page you will realize that sex is a actual theme of Disgrace. David is confident about sex but lack the right to feel satisfied whatsoever. David's way to satisfaction, briefly, is paid sex with Soraya. This arrangement finally comes to an end and David's solution to the problem of sex is eventually what gets him in deep problems with Melanie. David’s disgrace is, to a degree, self-inflicted; he decides to visit prostitutes and pursue students. He is criticized because of this and he is more or less pushed away from society. It's about realization. David ought to successfully cure him of his inappropriate desires. Sex is used as a technique to dominate, as in Lucy's rape; as a way of filling in a void, as David's pursuit of prostitutes and perhaps most significantly as a source of shame - or disgrace - as in David's relationship with Melanie and once again, Lucy's rape. The link between love and sex does not exist in this novel, instead it has been replaced with disgrace. On the countryside, David experiences a different lifestyle and a different mentality than the one he previously came across in the metropolis. David, however, discovers step by step how vulnerable Lucy is in the new South Africa, which culminates when he and his daughter experience a violent burglary by a group of thugs. David is assaulted, set afire and Lucy is raped. Lucy refuses to report the violation but David demand some form of action, but it is David who is repudiated as the one who disturbs the social peace and the false, shiny surface of harmony and unity. It seem as a necessity to accept the unacceptable, which is hardly dignified when the unacceptable is to live with neighbours that is acquainted with men that have in some way physically abused you. David suspect that Lucy's neighbour Petrus is involved, but says nothing. Once more, sex is not about sex: as Lucy explains it, the abuse was an act of "Subjection. Subjugation." Lucy decides not to inform the police that she was raped, just that her father was assaulted and some belongings stolen. Lucy does not have faith in the authorities and the system in place are capable to deal with what happened to her. She enlightens David: "'The reason is that, as far as I am concerned, what happened to me is a purely private matter. In another time, in another place it might be held to be a public matter. But in this place, at this time, it is not. It is my business, mine alone.' 'This place being what '' 'This place being South Africa.'" Ethnic group, the past and political principles come into it: Lucy and David have to deal with the new realities of post-apartheid South Africa, they strive to find their place in it. Instead of fighting the brutal past of South Africa, they give in and try to live a on the brink of a democratic system under development. It may be that Lucy feels she has to recompense for staying in post-apartheid South Africa by keeping quiet. I think the novel really is doing its best to depict the changing South Africa, not trying to hide its cruel realities and I must say Coetzee has done a brilliant job. David begins to help one of Lucy's friends, Bev, at an animal clinic - mostly to kill dogs. In this animal clinic David finds a meaning in life. David is a man who has lost everything and it is in commonality with those who are the most vulnerable, beings that are condemned to death, which he reclaims a bit of significance in life. After some time David travels back to Cape Town and finds his home turned upside down, he does not even bother to report it. He also visit Melanie's family and apologizes for what he subjected them to. David spends some time in Cape Town to write on his opera, Byron in Italy, but soon becomes concerned about Lucy and travels back to her farm. Once there, he learns that she's pregnant with one of the men that raped her and that her neighbour Petrus has offered Lucy to be his third wife. Lucy decides to marry Petrus. David returns to be assistant to Bev at the animal clinic. To me, Disgrace appears to be about modification and how we do or do not cope with it. It's about how we want to continue defending, for want of a better word, principles that perhaps no longer is relevant. A book that affects you. Very good reading.