Aesthetic Exploitation of Animal Cruelty in J M Coetzee’s Disgrace

Abstract

     The main objective of this research is interpreting what this paper will refer to as “dog euthanasia scenes” in J M Coetzee’s Disgrace in the light of Josephine Donovan’s aesthetic exploitation of animal pain. The research employs a structural and narratological approach to examine the function of specific narrative and stylistic strategies. First, it adopts Roland Barthes’ narratological distinction between “nuclei” and “catalysts” to analyze episodes of animal suffering, dog euthanasia scenes, so as to determine their structural role within the narrative. The analysis specifically examines whether these scenes form necessary plot center supporting human-focused narrative development or function as auxiliary elements. Second, the research additionally illustrates how Coetzee’s deliberate use of emotionless style, has effectively stripped the dogs’ suffering of its ethical weight, representing it as mere aesthetic display of ritualized animal sacrifice. The scenes also show how both David Lurie, the main character in the novel, and the dogs are unjustly punished for their instinctual drives, thereby linking animal vulnerability to human disgrace. In Coetzee’s Disgrace, David Lurie identifies his grim fate with that of the euthanized dogs. Therefore, sacrificed, the euthanized dogs symbolically wash off human disgrace. The results of the research are deduced by means of Josephine Donovan’s critique of aesthetic exploitation with concentration on aestheticizing animal pain in literature. The research further examines how the interdisciplinary collaboration of literary narratives with animal ethics may sometimes be employed to normalize violence against animals by embedding it within anthropocentric ideologies.