<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> This essay addresses J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, a Booker Prize winner in 1999. The novel captures South African political and cultural turmoil attending the post-apartheid transitional period. Far from overlooking the political allegory, I propose instead to expand on a topic only cursorily developed elsewhere, namely liberty and license. The two terms foreground the textual dynamics of the novel as they compete and/or negotiate meaning and ascendency. I argue that Disgrace is energized by Coetzee’s belief in a total liberty of artistic production. Sex is philosophically problematized in the text and advocated as a serious issue that deserves artistic investigation without restriction or censorship. This essay looks into the subtle libertinism in Coetzee’s text, which displays pornographic overtones without exhibiting a flamboyant libertinage. Disgrace acquires its libertine gesture from its dialogue with several literary works steeped in libertinism. The troubled relationship between the aesthetic and the ethical yields an ambiguous text that invites a responsible act of reading.</p></abstract>

This essay addresses J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, a Booker Prize winner in 1999. The novel captures South African political and cultural turmoil attending the post-apartheid transitional period. Far from overlooking the political allegory, I propose instead to expand on a topic only cursorily developed elsewhere, namely liberty and license. The two terms foreground the textual dynamics of the novel as they compete and/or negotiate meaning and ascendency. I argue that Disgrace is energized by Coetzee’s belief in a total liberty of artistic production. Sex is philosophically problematized in the text and advocated as a serious issue that deserves artistic investigation without restriction or censorship. This essay looks into the subtle libertinism in Coetzee’s text, which displays pornographic overtones without exhibiting a flamboyant libertinage. Disgrace acquires its libertine gesture from its dialogue with several literary works steeped in libertinism. The troubled relationship between the aesthetic and the ethical yields an ambiguous text that invites a responsible act of reading.

Dis/Graceful Liberties: Textual Libertinism/ Libertine Texts in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace

American, British and Canadian Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

This essay addresses J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, a Booker Prize winner in 1999. The novel captures South African political and cultural turmoil attending the...

Dis/Graceful Liberties: Textual Libertinism/ Libertine Texts in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace

Published Online: Jan 16, 2018

Page range: 23 - 45

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/abcsj-2017-0017

Keywords
J.M. Coetzee, South Africa, Post-apartheid, intertextuality, liberty and license, literature and philosophy, libertinage, freedom, sexuality

© ABC Studies, Journal of the Academic Anglophone Society of Romania

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Dis/Graceful Liberties: Textual Libertinism/ Libertine Texts in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace

Published Online: Jan 16, 2018

Page range: 23 - 45

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/abcsj-2017-0017

KeywordsJ.M. Coetzee, South Africa, Post-apartheid, intertextuality, liberty and license, literature and philosophy, libertinage, freedom, sexuality

© ABC Studies, Journal of the Academic Anglophone Society of Romania

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
J.M. Coetzee, South Africa, Post-apartheid, intertextuality, liberty and license, literature and philosophy, libertinage, freedom, sexuality