Disgrace

Disgrace (1999) is a novel by South African author J. M. Coetzee. It follows a white South African professor of English as he navigates the changing world of post-apartheid South Africa. Disgrace won the Booker Prize after its publication in 1999 and, four years later, Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 2008, the novel was adapted into a movie starring John Malkovich and Jessica Haines.

This guide uses the 1999 Secker & Warburg edition of Disgrace.

Content Warning: The novel and this guide discuss sexism, sexual assault, stalking, sexual grooming, violence, and racism. Sexual assault is discussed at length in most sections of this guide.

Plot Summary

Disgrace opens in Cape Town, South Africa, in the 1990s, in the years following the dismantling of apartheid. David Lurie is 52 years old and a professor of English. However, at his university, the English department has been replaced by the Communications department, reflecting the changing needs of the students. David is forced to teach communications courses, which he dislikes.

David is twice-divorced, and he isn’t close to Lucy, his daughter from his first marriage. He has weekly appointments with a sex worker named Soraya. However, when he attempts to push their relationship into something romantic, Soraya stops seeing him. David deals with this rejection by seducing one of the secretaries at his school, but he soon regrets this decision and begins to ignore her.

David then turns his attention to one of his attractive, young students: Melanie Isaacs. Melanie eventually gives in to David’s relentless and inappropriate pursuit, but it is clear that she is an unwilling partner. He pressures her into sex, after which Melanie stops attending school. Her boyfriend harasses David and vandalizes David’s car. Then, Melanie’s father confronts David, confirming David’s fears that the relationship is no longer a secret. Soon after, Melanie files a sexual harassment suit against David.

The university conducts a hearing and gives David an opportunity to seek counseling, apologize, and save his job. He refuses to do so. Eventually, he is forced to resign from his position at the university.

After this, David decides to visit his daughter Lucy at her farm. He assists Lucy at the farmers’ market and helps tend to the dogs she boards on her property. He also volunteers at an animal shelter with Bev, one of Lucy’s friends, helping her euthanize unwanted stray dogs; David is moved by the dogs’ plight. However, their life is disrupted when three Black men attack the farm, rape Lucy, steal her belongings, and kill several of the dogs. The attackers knock David unconscious and steal his car.

After the attack, Lucy is traumatized and David steps in for her and does the farm work. However, Lucy refuses to make a full report to the police; when she speaks with them, she downplays the violence of the attack and does not mention that she was raped. In her conversations with David, she says that the violence they experienced was caused by the years of resentment and anger that apartheid bred; she wants to move forward and embrace peace, so she asks that David not interfere with her response to the incident. Lucy shares her property with Petrus, a former employee who is now her neighbor. David suspects Petrus was complicit in the attack, though Lucy refuses to entertain this possibility. When it turns out that one of Lucy’s attackers is related to Petrus, Lucy again refuses to make appropriate reports.

David leaves the farm and returns to his house in Cape Town. In his absence, someone has broken into the building and robbed him. David once again stalks Melanie, attending a play in which she has a part, but her boyfriend spots David and threatens him, telling him that Melanie hates him. David is disturbed to hear this.

David returns to Lucy’s farm when he learns that she has become pregnant as a result of the rape. She insists that she will keep the baby, much to David’s astonishment. She decides to marry Petrus for protection and to ensure that she will continue to own part of her property. David struggles to accept her decision, but he decides to stay close to her. He rents a room in town and continues his work with Bev at the animal shelter, feeling love for the dogs as he holds them before they die.