Part One: focusing on the private Body
I really like this book. I like it because it is so rich - there is such a wealth of meaning embedded in the story. There is so much to muse upon, to think about, to extrapolate. I must confess that so far my interpretation of Disgrace is as yet, still amateurish. There is more I need to explore. The novel merits re-reading, but as yet I haven't had time to do that.
When I first read Disgrace, I was drawn to the notion of the rape. That is, Coetzee's narrative ploy of two separate instances in which the body (in particular, the female body) is violated. In David's other relations with women, for instance, Rosalind, Soraya, a colleague, a young girl on the street, Bev Shaw - it seems there was at least a certain level of consent. I did not understand, at that time, the relation to South Africa. Thus the lectures on Disgrace were a welcoming, mind-opening revelation to how the notion of the body politic can/may (but should we? as discussed at length in class) be read in Lucy.
I believe that, indeed, in Lucy's words, the very bodily issues of the novel must not be neglected.
"In another time, in another place it might be held to be a public matter. But in this place, at this time, it is not. It is my business, mine alone." (Lucy to David, pg 112)
It is the same with David's affair with Melanie Issacs. His private affair with Melanie is (perhaps rightly) brought out into the open, made known, and becomes a scandal, a "public matter".The affair is publicised in the Argus, reporters throng David after his meeting with the disciplinary board, and the committee tries to convince David to make a public admission that he is wrong.
"...it would help to cool down what has become a very heated situation. Ideally we would all have preferred to resolve this case out of the glare of the media. But that has not been possible. It has received alot of attention, it has acquired overtones that are beyond our control. All eyes are on the university to see how we handle it." (pg 53-54)
But we see that despite his public dismissal from the university, the matter is, at its essence, unresolved. David visits the Issacs family in an act of remonstration, which may not be a perfect resolution, but is an attempt at resolution, which is not a public, but private act.
The vulnerability of women's bodies, as amplified by the numerous descriptions of women and their bodies as they are seen through David's eyes and eroticised and lusted after, cannot be ignored. Thus, Lucy's decision not to report the rape, to become Petrus' third wife, and to keep the baby represents a attempt to transcend that vulnerability. She transcends her trauma and rises up in strength. Thus, unlike David, who falls from a state of grace, that is, into disgrace, Lucy ascends into grace, and is, as Dr Yeo has said, a tragic heroine. As we have discussed in class, Lucy stands as a rather puzzling, unfathomable character; but there is no doubt that she is somewhat superior. Her marginality does not make her inferior in the eyes of the reader.
Therefore, the very private, bodily notion of the rape, and the violation of the female body, must not be discounted in the light of other ways in which to read the text. Our preoccupation with the parallel of the new South Africa body politic can sometimes overshadow this.
posted by sarah @ 3:47 PM
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