The Power of Narration in the Novel Disgrace

Disgrace was published in 1999 and it handles two cases of sexual harassment. One of the cases is considered rape while the other is only considered harassment. In the second case, it is the main character, David Lurie who is accused of harassing the student he was having an affair with. The complaint against him leads to his resignation. In this essay, I will argue that the reason that it is questioned whether the harassment concerning the student is rape, or not, is due to the close connection between the main character and the narrator of the novel. As well as the main character’s beliefs regarding his sexual desires.

To support this claim, I will look at both textual evidence from the novel as well as looking at the chapter narration from the Bennet & Royle book An introduction to literature, criticism, and theory (2016).

In An introduction to literature, criticism, and theory narration is discussed by drawing examples from different novels and it argues that events can be told differently depending on who is telling it and one story can have several versions (Bennet & Royle 58). However, it is also argued that: 'to tell a story is to claim a certain authority, which listeners grant' (58). We as readers grants, in this case, the narrator in the novel the power over how we will perceive the harassment and therefore whether it will classify as rape.

Coetzee uses a third-person limited narration throughout the novel where the narrator follows one character and what they experience and their thoughts as well as feelings (Wiehardt 2019). In Disgrace, we follow Lurie’s thoughts through the narrator, referring to him as he: “Don’t go yet. He takes her by the hand and leads her to the sofa” (Coetzee 14). The closeness between the narrator and the main character makes him in power of the narrative in the story that is told.

When Lurie arrives at the student’s apartment the night of the harassment he is depicted as an intruder (24) and the lack of consent between the student and Lurie is stated: 'No, not now! She says, struggling' (25) Lurie disregards this and proceeds with his advancements. Having the fact in mind that the power of how we perceive the story is in the hands of the perpetrator allows him the power to redirect our attention. Instead of focusing on his actions we are instead focusing on hers: 'She lets him lay her out on the bed and undress her: she even helps him'(25). The reader can now question if the act is rape or not because rape is often perceived as correlated to physical violence performed by a stranger. But in this case, we have a girl who helps her rapist, who she has a relation to, undress her.

Lurie's beliefs are an important element of how he sees the harassment of the student and therefore how it is represented in the novel. He often for the duration of the novel declares his desire as a right and this clouds the line between right and wrong for him because of the way he blames the instinct rather than himself: 'I was not myself […] I became a servant of Eros.' (52). He even likens himself to a dog that is beaten for its instincts (90), arguing that he is being punished for an instinct that he has little to no control over.

However, the act between Lurie and the student is labeled as unwanted: “Not rape, not quite that, but undesired nevertheless, undesired to the core” (25) and it is also where we as the reader is suppressed by the authority of the narrator, or David Lurie by being told that it was not rape. Without the student’s point of view, we can't state if it was rape or not because that is up to the one who is victimized by the rapist to determine.

In conclusion, the harassment of the student is never acknowledged as rape in the novel due to the main character’s prerogative on the narrative. The narration technique allows the main character to tell a one-sided story excluding of the perspective of the student. Together with the main character’s beliefs regarding sexual desire which he thinks to be a human right all play a part in how we as a reader perceive the harassment. Through the perpetrator’s eyes, we are told one part of the story while the student holds the unknown other one.