Disgrace (novel by Coetzee) | Summary & Analysis

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Coetzee" loading="eager" /> </picture> <button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"> <em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em> </button> </a> </div> <figcaption class="card-body"> <div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"> <span> <a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/74/114774-050-591D2828/J-M-Coetzee.jpg" data-href="/media/1/672388/320081">J.M. Coetzee</a> <span><span>J.M. Coetzee, author of <em>Disgrace</em> (1999), in 2004.</span></span> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <span class="link-blue">(more)</span> </button> </span> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </div><div class="topic-header"> <div class="d-flex align-items-top justify-content-between"> <div class="d-flex flex-column"> <div> <div> <h1>Disgrace</h1></div> </div> <div class="topic-identifier font-16 font-md-20">novel by Coetzee</div> </div> </div> <div class="d-none d-sm-flex flex-row"> <div class="mr-10 mb-15"> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="d-none d-sm-block md-topic-tools qa-action-buttons mb-15" data-topic-id="672388"> <button class="js-tooltip btn btn-sm btn-outline-blue border pr-10 border-2" > <em class="material-icons md-icon ml-n10 my-n5 mr-5" data-icon="more_vert"></em> More Actions </button> <div class="md-more-popover popover popover-sm p-0 font-14 z-1"> <div> <a class="js-modal btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" href="/print/article/672388" target="_blank" > <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="print"></em> Print </a> </div> <div> <button class="js-modal qa-cite-modal-button btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal="[data-topic-id=672388] .md-cite-modal"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="verified"></em> Cite </button> <div class="md-cite-modal size-lg d-none"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif d-flex align-items-center pb-15 border-bottom mb-15"> <em class="material-icons text-blue mr-10">verified</em>Cite </div> <div class="font-serif"> While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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His work appears in Encyclopaedia Britannica as part of a joint publishing agreement with the publisher...</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Derek Attridge</span></div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-11-11T00:00:00CST" >Nov 11, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Disgrace/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Awards And Honors: </dt> <dd><a href="/art/Booker-Prize">Booker Prize (1999)</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/Disgrace"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref1330808"></span>Disgrace</strong>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">novel</a> written by South African author <span id="ref1330809"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-M-Coetzee" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">J.M. Coetzee</a> and published in 1999. It was his second work to win the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Booker-Prize" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Booker Prize</a> and came to be regarded as a masterpiece.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><em>Disgrace</em> is set in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">South Africa</a> after the end of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apartheid" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">apartheid</a>, a time in which social and political structures that had once seemed immutable have crumbled, and many among the once-dominant white population are forced to make difficult adjustments. The protagonist is David Lurie, a 52-year-old twice-divorced white professor of communications and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Romantic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Romantic" data-type="MW">Romantic</a> literature at a fictional university in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Cape-Town" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Cape Town</a>, who is also a womanizer. After he coerces one of his students into sex, she leaves school and makes a complaint against him. At the resultant disciplinary hearing, he admits to his actions but cannot bring himself to meaningfully apologize and so is required to give up his job, plunging him into an unknown future.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><div class="feature-block pullquote"><p class="topic-paragraph">Coetzee stirred controversy with the bleak and pessimistic vision of the condition of post-apartheid South Africa that some readers found in <em>Disgrace</em>.</p></div><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Lurie takes refuge with his daughter, Lucy, on her small farm in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Eastern-Cape-province-South-Africa" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Eastern Cape</a>. Lucy boards dogs and sells flowers at a farmer’s market, and Lurie meets and later begins working with both Lucy’s Black African neighbor and co-proprieter, Petrus, and her white friend Bev, who runs an animal shelter. One day, three Black African men break into Lucy’s house and lock Lurie into a bathroom. They shoot and kill all the dogs, rape Lucy, and set Lurie on fire.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Lurie is appalled by his daughter’s refusal to include the rape in her report to the police or to leave the farm. When they <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="attend" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/attend" data-type="EB">attend</a> a party at Petrus’s home to celebrate Petrus’s purchase of land from Lucy, they see one of the attackers at the party, but Lucy refuses any confrontation. The attacker proves to be a relative of Petrus named Pollux. Eventually, Lurie returns to Cape Town but finds that his home there has been ransacked. When he later returns to Lucy’s farm, he learns that the rape has left her pregnant but she refuses an <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/abortion-pregnancy" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">abortion</a>, and she agrees to marriage with Petrus. Lurie returns to working at the animal shelter and continues to work on an opera that he knows he will never complete. He at last recognizes his daughter’s right to live her own life as she sees fit.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><em>Disgrace</em> (which was filmed in 2008) caused fierce debates in South Africa over its portrayal of the new social and political order. Yet the novel’s <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ethical" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethical" data-type="MW">ethical</a> stance is even more challenging than its painful depiction of some of the country’s problems. It is unclear that Lurie achieves redemption or whether the acknowledgment of loss of power is a sort of redemption.</p><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/Derek-Attridge/9837587">Derek Attridge</a></span><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":1,"pageId":672388,"pageLength":455,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"C","adLeg":"C","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"MEDIUM","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Disgrace (novel by Coetzee) | Summary & Analysis | Britannica