Sexual Domination: Colonial Guilt and Postcolonial Hatred in J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace

Abstract: J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace was published during a defining moment in South African history in 1999. Five years earlier Nelson Mandela had been elected president after the first general election. The healing process in a country divided by race and a history marked by racial crimes, committed under long time by collective actions of many generations of colonizers, was a decisive historical necessity. Disgrace illustrates the economical and emotional mechanisms of sexual exploitation of women in post-apartheid South African society. Those socioeconomic mechanisms are fueled by postcolonial hate, making the reconciliation process difficult in the new democracy. The aim of this bachelor project is to show how Coetzee’s Disgrace contextualizes the collective humanitarian guilt and disgrace caused by sexual oppression of woman and illustrates the challenges that post-apartheid South Africa faces to reconcile with the racial crimes committed during apartheid when sexual crimes continue under the historical shadow of colonial power and postcolonial hatred.