Representation of South African Historyin J.M. Coetzee's Dusklands and Disgrace

Abstract

This thesis deals with the issues of power, discourse and the construction of South African 'other' in the dominant rhetoric of the Empire from the perspective of new historicism. While doing so, it justifies Coetzee's critique of the dominant historiographyand his concerns for the marginalized and ignored aspects of South African culture and history and the minorities such as the labourers and the women. In this connection, this thesis argues that in the selected novelsDusklandsandDisgrace Coetzee rewrites the colonial history of South Africa from the perspectives of the South Africans and projects racial reconciliation and forgiveness as essential conditions not only for the prosperity of post apartheid South Africa, but also as remedies for the suspicion, doubts and mistrust brought about by apartheid and looming large among the people.