원문정보
J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace : The Rhetoric of Ethical Dilemma Narrated in the Racism Space
초록
영어
John Maxwell Coetzee(1940- ), one of the most influential writers of the Republic of South Africa, has attracted public attention in the world of English literature. The ethics of the Other that Coetzee’s novels coherently examine has something in common with the theories of Gayatri Spivak and Emmanuel Levinas. Spivak emphasizes ethical responsibility in the postcolonial discourse and constructs a comprehensive academic and practical sphere which includes imperial history and subaltern study beyond the European philosophical and literary tradition. Levinas, an ethicist who analyzed the structure of the ethical relations between the self and the Other, further focuses on how the egoistic self respects the Other and attempts to constitute ethical relations between them. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the Rhetoric of Ethical Dilemma Narrated in the Racism Space in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999). While white writers like Coetzee in South Africa are considered to be more objective concerning racial discrimination than black writers, they have collided with certain racial limitations as they are not entirely free from the cultural traditions of Europe. Furthermore, white authors’ writings like Coetzee are accused of conspiring with the white people’s segregated society concepts and their former political power. This paper deals with Disgrace that suggests the future prospect of South Africa be positive through ethical coexistence in the post-Apartheid period, when the confrontation between black and white remained unchanged and conflicts and deep wounds were still felt. To explore “re-awoken” main characters rewriting contemporary history toward a new reconciliation between white and black, this analyzes Lurie, a white professor, who is deprived of his social position due to having had a sexual intercourse with his colored female pupil, and his daughter, Lucy, who was raped by black men. Although Lurie lived apart from the reality of culture, history, and geopolitics, he challenges the old stereotype that black and white cannot coexist. This text reveals not only the violence Lurie and Lucy undergo but also the process of the exploration for “truth and reconciliation” by asking whether black and white can truly coexist and by recalling the need for ethical self-reflection for true coexistence. In the end, Lurie and Lucy are reborn as characters who rewrite the contemporary history in the post-apartheid era. In Disgrace Coetzee aims to lead his readers to reflect upon what is indispensable for a world of genuine coexistence and true reconciliation instead of simply showing them the terrible events of Lurie and Lucy’s lives.
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Abstract