The Liberal Stranger in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54103/2037-2426/22456Keywords:
J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace, Liberalism, Liquid Fear, Stranger, Human Condition, Multicultural EnviromentAbstract
J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999) offers a potent depiction of the human condition within the complex milieu of post-apartheid South Africa, characterized by its diverse ethnicities and shifting interrelations. The novel, through the troubled trajectory of Professor David Lurie, a literary scholar steeped in liberal humanism, critically examines the limitations of such ideals when confronted with lived reality. Lurie’s journey from an intellectual figure to a disgraced outcast, and subsequently to a guest and a stranger, highlights the disconnect between his education and the radically transformed (post-apartheid) environment and its occupants (the strangers). Lurie’s struggle to navigate these altered social dynamics, and his entanglement with ‘liquid fear,’ underscores the failings of his liberal education. However, Disgrace does not merely present a bleak picture of societal disintegration. Lurie’s eventual (uncanny) position as a stranger, stripped of his former status, paradoxically opens a pathway towards a rediscovery of “essential human value,” specifically the capacity for ‘caring,’ suggesting a potential for moral transformation or rebirth.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Sara Saei Dibavar, Hossein Pirnajmuddin
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Accepted 2026-04-02
Published 2026-07-21
