Coetzee’s Disgrace and the Representation of Sexual Violence in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

An academic analysis of Coetzee’s Disgrace and how it represents rape and related violence against oppressed sections of the society reveals how it is almost impossible to separate different categories of society such as gender, race, status, etc, as they derive meaning from each other rather than empirically. Coetzee demonstrates, through a rather compelling narrative, how at times rape may not be primarily a gender crime, and can be complicated by considerations of race, class, etc, especially in a highly racialised society. This paper tries to show how the dissonance between the reactions to the two instances of sexual violence shown in this novel is natural due to the lopsided evolution of society in a highly racialised society with glaring and growing disparities between the rich and the poor and especially the historically empowered race and the oppressed ones.