Starting From a Ground Level: A Hope of Reconciliation in Lucy’s Silence and Subjection in Disgrace
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1111.13Keywords:
predicaments, rape, silence, subjection, reconciliationAbstract
This paper focuses on Lucy’s double predicaments as a white woman in post-apartheid South Africa in J.M. Coetzee’s novel Disgrace. As an heir of settler history and as the other to men in the patriarchal society, Lucy becomes a scapegoat of history and is raped by three black men. With a post-colonial interpretation of Lucy’s rape, this paper interprets Lucy’s silence about her rape and subjection to the blacks as her efforts to achieve a peaceful relationship with the blacks. Her determination to love the child bred in hatred by the black rapists shows a hope of reconciliation between whites and blacks through forgiveness and love.
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