DISGRACE

Tony Malinauskas Luke Taylor

Cindy Zavala

J.M. COETZEE

Background:•Born in Cape Town, South Africa on February 9, 1940•His family were Afrikaners, people of Dutch South African descent, but spoke English at home

Education:•Received his primary and secondary education in Cape Town • In 1957, Coetzee attended the University of Cape Town, where he obtained degrees in English and Mathematics

J.M. COETZEE

Life struggles: During his childhood, Coetzee lived in a farm in Worchester.

Throughout this time, he learned what it was like to be marginalized.

At that time, the English and the Afrikaans-speaking white

South Africans divided the school systems for whites by segregating along linguistic lines. Coetzee did not fit into Afrikaans culture because he attended English-medium classes and claimed to be Catholic.

Eventually, his hatred of apartheid, fear of conscription into Nationalist military police, and a desire to pursue his writing career as a poet are among the reasons  Coetzee left South Africa and moved to London, England.

BOOKS BY J.M. COETZEE

Books: 1969- Dusklands1977- In the Heart of the Country 1980- Waiting for the Barbarians1983- The Life and Times of Michael K1986- Foe1990- Age of Iron Age of Iron1994- The Master of Petersburg 

1999-Disgrace 

1997- Boyhood 2002- Youth 1999- The Lives of Animals2003- Elizabeth Costello 1988- White Writing 

1992- Doubling the Point1996-Giving Offense 2001- Stranger Shores

CONTEXT: Post-apartheid literature -J.M Coetzee played a major role

in bringing apartheid to global attention decades earlier, many of these same authors were responsible for bringing global attention to the condition of South Africa after apartheid

Disgrace -Title referencing how Professor David Lurie eventually leaves in disgrace after being charged with sexual harassment and how he is living his whole life in disgrace.

Disgrace Won the Booker Prize in 1999, in which Coetzee made history by being the first author to win the prize twice (first time he won for The Life and Times of Michael K)

CAPE TOWN

APARTHEID

Definition: Apartheid was an official policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites

Origins: South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch in the seventeenth century. Around 1900, the English invasion to lands, in which diamonds where found, sparked the Boer War. After the war, power sharing between the two groups shifted to the Dutch, as the Afrikaner National Party was able to gain a strong majority . Strategists in the National Party invented apartheid as a means to cement their control over the economic and social system.

Objective: Initially, aim of the apartheid was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation. Starting in the 60's, a plan of ``Grand Apartheid'' was executed, emphasizing territorial separation and police repression.

Legislation: With the enactment of apartheid laws in 1948, racial discrimination was institutionalized. Race laws touched every aspect of social life, including a prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites, and the sanctioning of ``white-only'' jobs. In 1950, the Population Registration Act required that all South Africans be racially classified into one of three categories: white, black (African), or colored (of mixed decent)

HISTORY:APARTHEID

APARTHEID Protests Begin: In 1960, a large group of blacks in Sharpeville

refused to carry their passes (showing they were South Africans); the government declared a state of emergency. The emergency lasted for 156 days, leaving 69 people dead and 187 people wounded

TIMELINE

http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/discrim/race_b_at_print.asp Colonization----------------> Segregation ------------------------>

Protests

HISTORY:TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COUNCIL (TRC)

 Purpose: The TRC was Set up by the Government of National Unity to help deal with what happened under apartheid

Origins: The TRC was set up in terms of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No 34 of 1995, and was based in Cape Town

Structure: The TRC was a court-like body assembled with

hearings making international news and many sessions were broadcast on national television.

Importance: The Findings of the commission/ committees of the TRC brought forth many witnesses giving testimony about the secret and immoral acts committed by the Apartheid Government, the liberation forces including the ANC, and other forces for violence that many say would not have come out into the open otherwise.

“Not rape, not quite that, but undesired nevertheless…she had decided to go slack, die within herself for the duration, like a rabbit when the jaws of the fox close on its neck. So that everything done to her might be done…far away.” (25)

“‘Exactly. Good or bad, he just does it. He doesn’t act on principle but on impulse, and the source of his impulses is dark to him. Read a few lines further: ‘His madness was not of the head, but heart.” A mad heart. What is a mad heart?’” (33)

“The criterion is not whether you are sincere. That is a matter, as I say, for your own conscience. The criterion is whether you are prepared to acknowledge you fault in a public manner and take steps to remedy it” (58)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Who is white and who is black? How did you reach your conclusion? Why is it not explicitly stated?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What opinion specifically do you have about David Lurie at this point (58) in the novel?

Consider the following quotes: -“A woman’s beauty does not belong to her alone…you should share it more widely.” (16)

-“he accepts the charges only in name. In a case with overtones like this one…” (50)

-“not the pure idea, wreathed in clouds, not the visual image burned on the retina…but the sense-image, kept as fleeting as possible, as a means toward stirring or activating the idea that lies buried” (22)

How does the text serve as an allegory for the TRC? For apartheid as a whole?

Why did the committee of inquiry object to the affair? Why do you object?

WORKS CITED Disgrace

Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace. New York: Viking, 1999. Print.

J.M. Coetzee Bibliography

"J. M. Coetzee - Biography." Nobelprize.org. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2003/coetzee-bio.html>.

"J. M. Coetzee: Biography." Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/coetzee.htm>.

History of Apartheid

"The History of Apartheid in South Africa." Student Information. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html>.

History of TRC

"Truth and Reconciliation Commission | South African History Online." South African History Online |. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://www.sahistory.org.za/contemporary-south-africa/truth-and-reconciliation-commission>.

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