Disgrace (novel)
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 First UK edition cover |
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| Author | J. M. Coetzee |
|---|---|
| Country | South Africa |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Secker & Warburg (UK) |
| Released | 1 July 1999 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 218 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-436-20489-4 (first edition, hardback) |
Disgrace (1999) is a novel by South African author J. M. Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature; the book itself won the Booker Prize in 1999, the year in which it was published. In 2006, a poll of 'literary luminaries' by The Observer newspaper named it as the 'Greatest Novel of the Last 25 Years.' [1]
A motion picture adaptation starring John Malkovich as David Lurie is slated for release in 2007.
[edit] Plot summary
The novel tells the story of "David Lurie", twice-divorced and unsatisfied with his job as a professor of Communication, teaching one specialised class in romantic literature at a technical university in Cape Town in post-apartheid South Africa. His "disgrace" comes when he seduces one of his students and is dismissed from his teaching position, after which he takes refuge on his daughter's farm in the Eastern Cape. For a time, his daughter's influence and natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. Shortly after becoming comfortable with rural life, he is forced to come to terms with the aftermath of an attack on the farm in which his daughter is raped and he is brutally assaulted.
[edit] Controversy
After the publication of the novel, the African National Congress brought charges against the author and the book before the South African Human Rights Commission, stating that the book presents a damaging image of post-apartheid South Africa and, in effect, is at best a powerful representation of white racist stereotyping of blacks. Conversely, Coetzee has dismissed these charges as superficial and outright dangerous.
[edit] External links
- "Postmetaphysical Literature: Reflections on J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace"; in Perspectives on Political Science 33, 1 (Winter 2004), 4-9.
- Disgrace (film) on IMDB
| John Maxwell Coetzee |
|---|
| Novels |
| Dusklands (1974) • In the Heart of the Country (1977) • Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) • Life & Times of Michael K (1983) • Foe (1986) • Age of Iron (1990) • The Master of Petersburg (1994) • Disgrace (1999) • Elizabeth Costello (2003) • Slow Man (2005) • Diary of a Bad Year (2007) |
| Essays |
| White Writing: On the Culture of Letters in South Africa (1988) • Doubling the Point: Essays and Interviews (1992) • Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship (1996) • The Lives of Animals (1999) • Stranger Shores: Literary Essays, 1986–1999 (2001) |
| Autobiographical works |
| Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life (1997) • Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II (2002) |
| Preceded by Amsterdam |
Man Booker Prize recipient 1999 |
Succeeded by The Blind Assassin |
