subsequently version Coetzees f satisfactory (1999) and then the literary criticisms that followed its publication, the inevitable endpoint was that the m whatsoever diametric interpretations of the raw demonstrated it reached readers in super individual focusings. Indeed, it calculateed that legion(predicate) of the criticisms were of different books. The economic consumption of this paper was to focus on an survey of the novel that has received little attention, Coetzees liberal use of humor or satire in the context of urban center life in post-A straggleheid southern close Africa during the young 1990s from the viewpoint of the main character, David Lurie in the front piece of the novel.Lurie taught at p all toldium Technical University, previously Cape township University College. Because of low student enroll custodyt, the Depart workforcet of Classics and new(a) Languages had been closed and Lurie had been as hallowed to teach laundrytracks in Communicatio ns Skills and a single course a year of his own pickaxe in an area of his specialization, wild-eyed Poetry. When Lurie, 52-years-old at the prison terminal figure of the novel, had been younger, his impressive corporeal mien had allowed him to attract women of his choice with little labor.Attracting women had rifle more difficult as he aged, and became even more difficult when Apartheid stop and many of its victims, who obviously did non hero-worship sportsman the like manly scholars, became university students and then module. The views of these students pass around to white women, who already had lacked power, relative to white men, before Apartheid ended. Thus the feminist and courtly rights movements that were active in the 1960s in the United States and other democracies in horse opera Europe did non begin in southeast Africa until the 1990s, when Apartheid ended.David Luries StoryAt the beginning of Coetzees novel (1999), Lurie was well satisfied having ki ndle once a week with a beautiful Moslem cleaning lady, paying an escort service. Less alright was his adjacent escort, followed by a repository in his university department. Knowing the risk presented by new university policies, he until now seduced a young student taking his course, Melanie, when he accidentally encountered her while on his way home. Her feelings were put across only(prenominal) the table service time they had sex.He had g atomic number 53 to her apartment, she had said no (using her concern that her cousin/roommate would in short return as an excuse), he proceed and though she did non fight him, she seemed to escape dead, waiting for him to finish. In his own mind, he concluded that what he did was not rape, not quite that, hardly undesired nonetheless (p. 25).Later, aft(prenominal) she had filight-emitting diode a complaint, he met with the disciplinary deputation, composed of faculty (and one non-voting student), and promptly admitted his guilt . However, he refused to offer additional entropy that they exigencyed in order to suggest to the Rector of the University a course of achievement other than dismissal. The Rector, in an effort to head off asking for Luries resignation, asked him to sign a statement expressing contriteness, already written for him by a member of the delegation.After refusing to sign and creation dismissed, Lurie visited his daughter, Lucy, at her home in a rural area of South Africa, where the satire in the first section inevitably lessened (though did not disappear) because of the most harrowing central event of the second section, the brutal gang-rape of Luries daughter, Lucy, when the rapists overly clique Lurie on fire and locked him in the bathroom, fling the dogs at Lucys kennel, and then leave of absence in Luries car.Criticisms Related to Luries earshot in Coetzee (1999)One subscriber line against publishing the novel was made by prominent South Africans who were opposed to pres enting a damaging image of the country (Attridge, 2002, p. 315). This cause did not recognize the difference in the midst of publicizing historical events and valuing literature, and that the only prudent way to engage with Disgrace is as a literary work (p. 319). ground on this premise, only literary criticisms submit been discussed below. Few of these criticisms even recognized elements of the novel that were humorous or satiric.Many interpretations had in common a view of Lurie as a symbol of the white male aristocratic elite, a man who had essay to retain the Apartheid privileges of his race and gender, in particular, independence to initiate familiar relationships with young women who were their students (Boehmer, 2002 Cornwall, 2002 Graham, 2003 Saunders, 2005). small-arm the view of these critics did, in fact, reflect Luries view of himself, the critics also shared Luries own chokeure to recognize that the techniques he used to try seducing his women students were t horoughly inefficacious for reasons unrelated to any differences in the faculty member abilities of students before and after the end of Apartheid.For example, as Lurie did recognize, his sexual conquests of earlier years require him to use no techniques at all because women were drawn to his impressive physical appearance. As he aged, seduction required effort and he hadnt a roll as to what would and would not render him large-hearted to young women, disregardless of their color.His lack of ken of the impression he made on others went to the extreme of him not even being able to pay Soraya, a captain from the escort service to protract what he considered a genuine relationship, likely because she install it frightening that he seemed to be quest her. Although she could not pass water been aware of his fantasies some having sex while her two children watched, it would be get a lineable for her to live been concerned virtually the safety of her children because she n o grander was able to keep her certain identity private, a precaution any professional persecute should take.However, Sarvans conclusion (2004, p. 27) that the fantasies Lurie (or anyone) had to increase arousal while having sex indicated he had a moral sickness was funny luxuriant for Coetzee to have used in the novel itself. As Attridge (2000) noted, increased puritanical direction of once private details of sexual intimacy was not limited to South Africa, only instead reflected the world in general, notably . . . the United States (p. 103) and that in the first section of the book, Coetzees writing oft used satire (p. 103).Lurie recognized that he had never been much of a instructor (p. 4) and after reading a strain of how he taught what did interest him, Wordsworth (when seducing Melanie, he told her that the harmonies of The feeler have echoed within him for as long as he can remember, p. 13), one shudders to imagine him doing a worse problem in teaching Communicati ons (p. 4).Coetzee provided a very brief sample of part of a class on Romantic Poetry Lurie taught (p. 21), so brief that it was funny, quite a than mind-numbing as an entire lecture would have been. After reading a qualifying from The Prelude, he asked the students why Mont Blanc had been a letdown (p. 21). He then pedantically asked them what he already knew that, of course, none of them had looked up a dictionary definition of the unusual verb edition acquire upon (p. 21).Although without a dictionary, context would probably permit automatically inferring a substance such(prenominal) as intrude upon, Lurie implied the expiration would have been go past had they known that take over upon means to intrude or infringe upon. Usurp, to take over entirely, is the perfective of usurp upon, usurping completes the act of usurping upon (p. 21). When he was younger, it would seem clear that the young women in his classes found him sexually attractive because they were looking at him, quite a than listening.Regarding Luries sexual relationship with Melanie, Lurie did not seem to know whether she was attracted to him, sexually or otherwise. That she did not resist him when he had sex with her after she had said no could have been because she recognized she could be safe from physical harm or even that hed leave more promptly if she were passive. When she returned to stay at his home, her reason might have been because she feared her boyfriend or that Lurie decently understood that she did and had a right to bullshit him regarding her attendance and work in his class. there was no evidence that she feared his power to operate her grade in his course.After Melanie had filed a formal charge of sexual anguish (and Lurie really did not have a way of clear-sighted whether or not she was pressured to do so), several criticisms (Boehmer, 2002 Cornwall, 2002 Graham, 2003 Saunders, 2005) seemed to accept professor Farodia Rassools argument that they needed to judge whether a statement from Lurie comes from his heart and whether a statement expressing penitence reflected his naive feelings (p. 54). Luries term preposterous (p. 55) was literally exact in the sense that it is not practical to determine the sincerity of a written statement, only if it also was difficult to understand why Lurie, who had never before showed any concern about being deceitful, perfectly became a man with principles.He did seem to be mocking Rassool but it also appeared obvious that she was a humorless woman and regardless of race, she was supported, and without particular warmth, only by the two other women who had been present at a time when she spoke. It indeed was astound that Saunders (2005) could have made an obvious erroneousness of fact had she read the book, stating the faculty committee italics added indignantly objects to Luries acceptance of charges without remorse (p. 99).Saunders repeated her erroneous treatment of the commissioning as united in the next three pages, Luries response does not, from the committees perspective, meet the demands of ethical business (p. 100), the committee isnt convinced that Luries admission is a reflection of his sincere feelings (p. 101), and Luries performance does not take on the expectation, shared by the novels committee of inquiry that remorse and innovation were publicly acknowledged (p. 102). How was it possible to split up to recognize that the three men at the hearing, Aram Hakim, sleek and youthful (p. 40), Manas Mathabane, the soften of the Hearing (p. 47), and Desmond Swarts, Dean of Engineering (p. 47) had no such expectations, but instead made it clear they indispensablenessed Lurie to let them help him lift being asked to resign?Swarts, for example, said DavidWe would like to realize a way for you to continue with your career (p. 52) and Hakim immediately after said We would like to help you, David, find a way out of what essential be a nightmare (p. 52). Af ter Rassool urged that the Committee impose the severest penalty (p. 51), Mathabane responded, allow me remind you again, Dr. Rassoolit is not up to us to impose penalties (p. 51). Lurie recognized the men were his friendsThey trust him back in the classroom (p. 52). there was no response after he noted, In the chorus of goodwillI hear no female voices (p. 52), but, oddly, Lurie did not seem to remember that prior to the Hearing, the only other person mentioned as a member of the Committee was a faculty member who teaches in the Business nurture (p. 47). During the Hearing, she was presented as a young woman, but her question about his willingness to seek help of any kind (a priest, for instance, or a counsellor, p. 49) suggested she shared the confusion of the men about his refusal to simply save his job, regardless of his opinion, but had no desire any to persuade him to do so or to cause him harm.At the preliminary meeting, the chair of his department was present, a woman who , consort to Lurie, regarded him as a hangover from the past, the preferably cleared away the better (p. 40), but the reader had no way of knowing whether she cared about him at all or might in fact want to replace him not because of his discipline but because she would prefer hiring a person who could teach.Coetzee did get together the woman who wanted him to express contrition that came from his heart a name indicating she was washed-out (at least at the time of the novel, no-one suggested it was sturdy to divide people into two racial groups white and non-white, the reason for using the term colored).Combined with Lurie having had sex with a young student who also was not white, Coetzee clearly intended to introduce equivocalness regarding Rassools intended meaning of Luries failure to mention the long fib of exploitation of which this is part (p. 53). However, there was no justification for Cornwall (2002) using the races of Rassool and Melanie to reach the (inelegantly w orded) conclusion that their relationship can be seen to be informed not only by the power relations of patriarchy and the honorary society but also by those of race their encounter is contextualized within the several centuries of colonial history in which white men debauched black women with impunity (p. 315).While many of the conclusions in criticisms related to the experiences that led to and occurred during Luries Hearing were that there was a need for him to express contrition or remorse, the actual events in the novel, as described above, led to the conclusion that Lurie was more of an unintentional anti-hero than sinner. whatsoever his reasons were, as an anti-hero, he flaunted both cordial conventions regarding treating women with respect and politically correct jargon, such as women victims of the patriarchy. Should we thus admire him for the relationships he had with women? Of course not. Perhaps the most well-known sexual anti-hero was another Professor, self-confesse d pedophile Humbert Humbert (Nabokov, 1955), who demonstrated that indeed the vilest of behaviors can simultaneously be the most comic.While Luries offensive behaviors pale in compare to those of Professor Humbert, it would seem difficult to fail to recognize that both his typically ill at ease(p) efforts at seduction and his more lucky ability to bring out the silliest of exercises in political correctness resulted in annihilating humor at an extremely difficult period in South Africa.ReferencesAttridge, D. (2000). time of bronze, state of grace Music and dogs in J. M. Coetzees Disgrace. Novel, 34, 98-121.Attridge, D. (2002). J. M. Coetzees Disgrace Introduction. Interventions, 4, 315-320.Boehme, E. (2002). not saying sorry, not speaking distract Gender implications in Disgrace. Interventions, 4, 342-351.Coetzee, J. M. (1999). Disgrace. New York Viking.Cornwall, G. (2002). Realism, rape, and J. M. Coetzees Disgrace. Critique, 43, 307-316.Graham, L. V. (2003). Reading the uns peakable Rape in J. M. Coetzees Disgrace. Journal of Southern African Studies, 29, 432-444.Nabakov, V. (1955). Lolita. New York G. P. Putnams Sons.Sarvan, C. (2004). Disgrace A path to grace? World literary works Today, 26-29.Saunders, R. (2005). Disgrace in the time of a Truth Commission. Parallex, 11, 99-106.