Opera, Byron, and a South African Psyche in J M Coetzee’s <i>Disgrace</i>

Abstract

At the close of Coetzee’s novel Disgrace, Professor David Lurie retreats into a state of alienation. He chooses both a physical and psychic reality removed from a functioning democratic South Africa. In this state he attempts to compose an opera on Lord Byron and Teresa Guiccioli, which becomes representative on many levels of David’s private and public relationship to his nation. Using Jacqueline Rose’s work as a tool for understanding the link between fantasy and political identity, the article focuses on David’s opera and its role in communicating reflections on identity, exile, and political meaning within the mind of a newly disenfranchised member of South Africa’s nation.