Abstract

John Maxwell Coetzee is a famous South African novelist, critic and translator. It is he who firstly gets the Booker Prize twice and he has been awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003. Coetzee penetrates his unique personality into his works. He often sets South Africa as the background of his stories and the themes of his novels are nearly the same, concerning redemption in hardship.

Disgrace is one of Coetzee’s masterpieces, which has been awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003. The novel Disgrace tells a story about a fifty-two years old professor who gets married and then divorces very quickly. By way of telling the story, Coetzee aims at exposing the problems which exist in the South African society. Of these problems, some are relevant to racial discrimination and massacres between different races, and some denote the hypocritical interpersonal relationship. After the collapse of the colonial empire built by the white people, the black people begin to revenge and rule their own country. Taking revenge, however, is not a good idea because the black people cannot get comfort through this method. Coetzee discloses this kind of distorted revenge in his works, and expresses his worry about the various problems existing in the South African society and his hope of developing this country.

This thesis is composed of five parts. The first part is a brief introduction to John Maxwell Coetzee and further points to the aims and significance of the thesis. The second part offers a review of criticism to Coetzee and his works both at home and abroad. The third part analyzes the post-colonial theories and the theories of identity. In the fourth part, there is analysis about how to search for self-value through the angle of identity. Finally, the last part gives a concise and clear conclusion of the thesis.

All in all, the novel Disgrace focuses on the theme of redemption in hardship and pursuit of self-value. This thesis analyzes how to search for self-value through the angle of identity, which is an assist in the research of Coetzee’s works.

Key words: post-colonialism, identity, self-value, Disgrace, John Maxwell Coetzee