Abstract
South Africa going to second democratic elections saw two path-breaking works exploring disgraceful crimes and emotional commotions in an intriguing era. One is J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999) and Andre Brink’s The Rights of Desire (2000). The Protagonists of both the works are middle-aged caught in the noose of Eros and are seen resisting the change of tides and resigned to the fateful happenings in store for them. The novel portrays the transitional apprehensions of the whites, the power-wielders of the yester- years to adapt to the syndrome of power withdrawal and deprivation. The story depicts individual self-denigration in a changed political environment dictating a code of moral uprightness and ethics. The redeeming consolation of comic, grotesque and lunatic overtures that Beckett ingeniously provides in his fiction do not find a place in Coetzee. Instead Coetzee forces his readers to look into ineluctable gaps that mark the narration.
Highlights
In the late 1990s, Coetzee is at work on another compelling novel set in South Africa
Has South Africa re-entered at last one of those “softer ages” longed for by Mrs Curren in her reinvention of Hesiod’s creation narrative? The new novel, Disgrace, published in 1999, certainly suggests that the ten or twelve years that have passed since Mrs Curren’s dying days have wrought a transformation in the country, but it’s not easy to say what age we find ourselves in
A time of rampant crime, inefficient police services, middle-classes barricaded into their fortresshomes: have we followed Mrs Curren’s inverted sequence and moved beyond iron only to reach bronze? “In this place, at this time” Coetzee’s fiction has always had a mixed reception in South Africa, and it’s very success elsewhere in the world has increased the suspicion felt among some groups in his native country
Summary
South Africa going to second democratic elections saw two path-breaking works exploring disgraceful crimes and emotional commotions in an intriguing era. In the late 1990s, Coetzee is at work on another compelling novel set in South Africa. Coetzee’s Age of Iron (1990), the novel that appeared before Disgrace (1999b), does engage history by attempting to create the conditions that are necessary for the ethical to meditate on the political circumstances.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
