Trajectories of Colonial Crimes and Reconciliation in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace

Abstract

The colonization of Africa was based upon racist convictions and paradigms of White man‟s superiority. The empire employed a vocabulary of discrimination as Edward Said states that “they were not like us, and for that reason deserved to be ruled” (Said xi). Counteracting colonial mindset, South African leader Nelson Mandela‟s “100 Day speech to Parliament” in which he emphasized on the “Reconciliation Development Program” in South Africa took the notion of reconciliation to greater moral heights. Against all odds, Mandela maintained that “reconciliation will remain shallow if it is not accompanied by thoroughgoing changes in all areas of life” (Mandela 03). Thisresearch study discusses the crimes and violence portrayed in J.M. Coetzee‟s Disgrace are the consequences of colonial history of oppression in South Africa. Furthermore, in post-apartheid South Africa,novels, such as Disgrace also reveal the complications of accepting and implementing concepts such asreconciliation, reconstruction, and restitution, recommended by Mandela. This research study closely focuses on Coetzee‟s Disgrace that embodies stories of hatred, forgiveness, and reconciliation as postapartheid South Africa comes to terms with colonial history of guilt, and crime. This research study explores in depth, the probabilities and improbabilities of reconciliation on the practical scale. Furthermore, it explores the struggles of a white woman who gets raped by black men in post-apartheid South Africa and considers this immoral act as a compensation for the atrocities held by the colonizers against the colonized