Sexuality In J. M Coetzee's Disgrace

J.M Coetzee writes Disgrace (1999,Vintage 2000) during a sensitive time in South Africa; just 5 years after South Africa became a democratic country and the official end of the oppressive Apartheid Regime. Coetzee has critics’ questioning the choice of his main character within the novel because the entire novel is filled with violations of ethical responsibility from the main character David Lurie; a white 52 year old literature professor who explores his sexuality within the novel by having sexual relations with a prostitute once a week and eventually engages within sexual violence towards a student. This essay will discuss the how Coetzee chose to represent violence, sexuality and race within the novel and how his main character explores

Coetzee chooses to use the words like “eyes closed” and Melanie’s “hands slack above her head” (19) which try to create a subtle picture of a violation of ethical responsibility because Lurie is her teacher and he is in a position of power which he abuses when he starts an inappropriate ‘relationship’ with Melanie. He continues with the act of ethical violation when he watches Melanie while she is practices for the play she is involved in (23). A form of his stalking of Melanie could be seen in the way he watched her while she was unaware of his presence. Throughout this process of stalking, Lurie’s growing desire, and maybe also his inappropriate desire, for Melanie intensifies. Lurie sees women as sexual objects that do not hold their own beauty but are meant to be shared amongst men and this negative view on women is what allows Lurie to treat Melanie as object. “Now i make do with whores”( 16) is what Lurie confesses to himself which reinforces the idea that women are not valued in Lurie’s eyes but merely bodies that can be used for sex. He sees all the women he has had sexual relations with as whores and does not bother to exclude his former wives from that