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- Dusklands
1977- In the Heart of the Country
1980- Waiting for the Barbarians
1983- The Life and Times of Michael K
1986- Foe
1990- Age of Iron Age of Iron
1994- The Master of Petersburg
1999-Disgrace
1997- Boyhood
2002- Youth
1999- The Lives of Animals
2003- Elizabeth Costello
1988- White Writing
1992- Doubling the Point
1996-Giving Offense
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
HISTORY:
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)
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/literatu
re/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-southafrica/truth-and-reconciliation-commission>.
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