J. M. COETZEE: DISGRACE

Details: J.M. Coetzee DISGRACE A Critical Study by Shakti Batra The 2003 Nobel literature laureate J.M.Coetzee won his second Man Booker Prize for Disgrace in 1999. David Lurie, the central character, is a confusing person, at once an intellectual snob who is contemptuous of others and also a person who commits outrageous mistakes. He is forced to rethink his entire world at an age when he believes he is too old to change and, in fact, should have a right to. This theme, about the challenges of ageing both on an individual and societal level, leads him to conclude that the post- apartheid South Africa is "No country, this, for old men," where man is broken down almost to nothing before he finds some tiny measures of redemption in his forced acceptance of the realities of life and death. This critical study deals with the various facets of Disgrace from the point of view of examination of university students. Shakti Batra has been Vice-principal, Dyal Singh College (University of Delhi), has also taught at the Kabul University and the University of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek.