THE MANIFESTATIONS OF ARCHITYPES AND PSYCHOANALYTICS IN “DISGRACE” BY J.M. COETZEE

Abstract

The problem of racial discrimination and the analysis of the characters according to archetypes and psychoanalysis are very real in modern literature. In this point, J.M. Coetzee is a really important writer in postcolonial literature, having described the daily life and culture of post-Apartheid South Africa in his novel ". This novel takes a special place in postcolonial literature because of its deep meaning and description of the people’s suffering and depression related to colonialism and racial discrimination. But this novel is not only famous for its topic but also for its style. The writer used the majority of postmodernist literary devices, such as "multilingualism, intertextuality, boomerang effect, collage, mixture of two opposite time periods, and so on, in this novel. The characters of the novel sometimes depend on their own faults, sometimes on the traces of history. Firstly, the characters seem simple and usual, but if the reader is able to analyze them according to the archetypical theory by Jung and the psychoanalytical theory by Freud, then everything starts to seem controversial and complicated.

This article aims to analyze the issue of racial complexity and the dilemma afflicting a white writer writing in post-apartheid South Africa. Years of colonial and apartheid history in South Africa have exerted an immense strain on the writers and are the acid test of white liberal sensibility in South Africa. The writers have chosen realism over other approaches to bring history and fiction together. The dilemma before the white writer is whether he can represent reality through the use of metafictional techniques, metonymy, and colonial violence.

"Disgrace" is unique stylistically because, even though it is written by a third-person narrator, David Lurie's point of view dominates the story. 'Free indirect discourse' and 'third person limited' are terms that describe this mode of writing. Coetzee's decision to use this technique gives his audience access to not only Lurie's spoken words but also his unspoken thoughts. The reader becomes intimately familiar with Lurie's desires, passions, and discourse.