I. Introduction

I.  Introduction

The majority of J.M. Coetzee’s novels present worlds of social and political unrest, brutality and often times conflicting images of race, social class and/or gender that appear to be a response to the world in which he writes.  Though the themes and motifs in Coetzee’s novels range from novel to novel one particular theme appears to remain the same; that is, the novels appear to be larger social commentaries on life in Post-Apartheid South Africa.  Concurrently Coetzee appears to present protagonists that are forced to privilege one group over another, perhaps as a response to the “oppressive practices that have pervaded South African life for hundred of years” (Gallagher x).  By placing his characters in worlds reflective of this particular time and place, Coetzee creates stories where his characters are entrenched in “…the discursive practices of South Africa.  Those practices in turn are influenced by a complex mix of material realties, psychological states, and metaphysical beliefs” (Gallagher x), beliefs that are often challenged by the socio-political world in which they partake.  Although there are many different voices and ways that Coetzee uses to portray the discursive practices of Post-Apartheid South Africa, this paper will focus solely on how Coetzee constructs gender and identity and how both function as part of a larger social commentary.  Through the lens of French feminist theory, particularly through the works of Simone de Beauvoir and Monique Witting, this paper will explore how Coetzee’s In the Heart of the Country and Disgrace, through the two central female protagonists Magda (In the Heart of the Country) and Lucy (Disgrace), answer to the problem of male patriarchal discourse.   This is not to say that Coetzee himself is necessarily anti-feminist, rather his novels, namely through the portrayal of the female, harbor on the border(s) of anti-feminism due to the patriarchal society in which the women live and are forced to participate.  The issue of feminism than in Coetzee’s texts is part of a larger response to the situation in Post-Apartheid South Africa, a world where the ‘other’ albeit the gendered, racialized or politicized other— is sacrificed to the prevailing and privileged class.