The French scholar, Roland Barthes says the readers are born at the cost of the death of the authors. In his book of literary criticism titled “The Death of the Author (1967)”, Barthes consciously considers a writer a “death” once he or she has published the raw copy of the manuscript, which has been copied as raw as the scribbles of any other writer. When the writers remain dead, the readers (alive) provide light and lives to the author’s work by interpreting and re-interpreting the meanings from the texts through the lens of various theories of literary criticism.
In literature, the term “Criticism” is understood as an “evaluation” rather than considering it a “mechanism of censorship.” This is why the readers reconstruct the lives of the authors through their interpretations (writerly texts) of their works (readerly texts). It is obvious that the readers turn the houses into homes, built by the writers.
This book has been written carefully by interpreting the selected articles through the lens of various appropriate theories of literary criticism. The text is much simplified and understandable which would help exemplify the analysis of the texts through the readers’ interpretations. The author expects that this book would be essentially useful to a range of readers (both college students and researchers in literature) in their academic endeavors.
Rite de Passage in Samskara
Abstract
This paper intends to analyze Praneshacharya’s initiation of experience “beginning from the end” as an irony that a rite for a dead man becomes a rite of passage, into his whole life cycle. The protagonist’s quest with struggle on his journey to salvation, through three phases of Rite de Passage; separation, transition and incorporation. This paper will also highlight the central information of the protagonist’s journey through the rites of initiation in the novel “Samskara” in comparison to Van Gennep’s model such as pre-liminal, liminal and post-liminal rites.
Keywords: Rite de passage, rites of initiation, experience, incorporation
The novel, ‘Samskara’, Ananthamurthy’s written representation embedded with orthodoxy of Brahmanism with its communal cultural dominance is set and written in Kanada in 1965 and was later translated into English by the renowned Indian Poet AK Ramanujan in 1976. His novel, Samskara, serves as a masterpiece of his time, being allegorised and multi-layered which unfolds Brahmin’s religious hypocrisy and on the other hand, it preponderantly serves as a medium of expression in which he handles himself as a symbolically cultured native and a critic, with his critique and commentary as a cultural insider of Madhva Brahmin sect. With phrasic twists and turns of the events, the tone of the novel opens with its old tradition and ends with modernity as a wake-up call for the orthodox Brahmanism to modernity.
“The structure of the plot intends to show this transition of Praneshacharya’s character from spiritual to demonic and finally to humane stage. The character is formed by a person's culture and the character forms one’s culture. The novel progresses from one level of consciousness into another plane of consciousness,” cited in Quest for New Value in Samskara (Madhusudana, 2017, p.1).
Samskara, as the title of the novel, means “a rite of initiation, a rite for a dead man, identity and for achieving salvation.” In this novel, Samskara, the protagonist’s identity is misplaced between tradition and modernity. To find the identity, the protagonist Praneshacharya undergoes different phases of Rite de Passage to fulfill four different life stages. Rite de Passage is the ceremony of passage or rite of initiation that occurs when an individual separates from the group to enter the other group for self-realization.
The novel “Samskara” begins with one of the central cleansing and purification rituals in the rites of Hindu worship. Praneshacharya, the most honored Brahmin in his orthodox conservative agrahara, begins each day by bathing the shriveled body of his invalid wife. He views that by marrying an invalid woman, Bhagirathi, as a sacrifice, he could attain salvation. Pranesacharya declares, “…I get ripe and ready.” (Murthy, 1995, p.4).Thus, it signifies his failure to fulfill some of the four life stages or ashramas for Brahmin males; that of the celibate student (brahmacharya), householder (grahastha), hermit or forest-dweller (vanaprastha), and renouncer (samnyasa).However, Praneshacharya’s “slip” as an external conflict with Chandri becomes the catalyst for Praneshacharya’s spiritual crisis: which resulted to an internal conflict which forces him to question his self-identity, “Where am I? How did I get here? What’s this dark? Which forest is this? Who is this woman?”(Murthy, 1995, P.58).It is ironic that his “slip” with Chandri is caused due to Narahappa’s death.
There are three phases of rite de passage such as “separation,” “transition,” and “reincorporation.” In the initial stage, the individual isolates from the group demonstrating disconnection to their original self. The person is separated from his home group in search of the truth. In the second transitional phase, which is also known as liminality, there is vagueness in what is going on where one has neither left one state nor has entered the other. It is also known as the threshold stage or the phase of crisis. The final is the transformational stage where the character emerges as a new persona. This is the stage of incorporation where one re-enters the society after realizing the self’s new identity or status. The trace of the rite of passage is present in Praneshacharya, the central character of Samskara by U N Ananthamurthy.
In contrast to these stages, Arnold, Van Gennep argues that almost all societies have a ritual which authenticates an individual’s transition from one stage to another, and there is a particular sequence to the rituals in which people shift from one status within a community to another status. According to Van Gennep, rites of passage have three phases such as pre-liminal, liminal and post-liminal. The first phase is the rite of separation from a previous world. Transitional or liminal is the second phase or state when one is in between two conditions; the one from which the individual or group departs and the one which they will enter the next. It is also known as the crisis phase, characterized by uncertainty, disruption of order, and suspension of the structure of society. In the third phase one re-enters into the new world with the new identity with ceremonies of incorporation. Thus, this paper will analyze the protagonist’s struggle through the rite de passage to draw its parallel analysis and variations from Van Gennep’s model.
i. Separation
In Brahmin community, Praneshacharya is portrayed as a paragon of virtue as a character in a first few chapters of the novel. He represents an orthodox Brahmin man bound by traditional mundane rituals. He is seen as committed, ascetic, righteous and faultless character of the Brahmin world in both his personality and conduct. His virtuous character is further authenticated by marrying an invalid woman as the sacrifice of his worldly pleasure to gain moksha. Bathing his wife, offering food and flower to God, serving his wife, visiting Maruti temple and preaching his fellow Brahmins had been his daily rituals for past twenty years. However, Pranesacharya is presented with the external conflict, the death Naranappa. It is his responsibility to find solution to the question, “Who will perform the funeral rite of the hedonist? Since Naranappa dishonoured Brahmin-hood by marrying an outcast woman and association with Muslims, there was no one to cremate his dead body. Praneshacharya who is referred to as the crest jewel of the Vedic learning was the one to decide the cremation. He couldn’t find any solution to it nor from even tiring flip of palm leaf text. His rite of initiation of knowledge through Vedic scripture became useless to respond to such a modern question. It is like impractical knowledge without the experience. His acquired knowledge through Vedic learning just became a ritual, far more barrier to realism. Further, he ventured to the temple of Lord Maruti, where he found himself to be disappointed. Amidst his state of despondency of his limitation, the dead body got lost in the Agrahara.
His external conflict begins with since his “slip” with Chandri who becomes an agent of sensual and worldly desire for which Kallimani candidly states that he experiences meaninglessness and uncertainties of life for the first time. He forces to question the reality of his existence and essence of life. His need to feel Chandri’s presence becomes a part of his own desire. He envisages he could solve the dilemma of both past and present life only through Chandra (Kallimani, 2015, P. 255).
The coincidence of his “slip” with Chandri is the moment of his psychological separation from the community of Agrahara. He believes that he has fallen from grace for giving into his sexual desires. Praneshacharya compares this fall from grace to "a baby monkey losing hold of his grip on the mother’s body." (Murthy, 1995, p.75).Praneshacharya struggled his entire life laying a path to salvation since he was sixteen by marrying Bhagirathi and never exhibited any desire or obstacle that held him down from that path.
The unanticipated ‘‘slip’’ becomes his own rite of initiation, and his own moment of transformation. Praneshacharya’s fall is a “fortunate fall” as claimed by Gupta (1980). This slip makes him realize the meaning of life and hollowness in the orthodoxy of Brahmin society. He states that, “In tandem, he, however, has an irresistible sense of having attained through his experience not only physical and emotional fulfillment but also an increased moral awareness as well as a broadening and refining of his human perceptions.” (Gupta, 1980, p. 20-21).
The “fall” was the fall from his grace of spiritual life, but Madhusudana, (2017) argues that it is beyond human’s imagination for Pranesacharya to get fascinated into the charm of Chandri not taking on an account of his mentality. It happens , maybe, due to the confession in Naranappa’s problem also had a negative influence that led him in the stage of dilemma, so Chandri must have utilized the weakness and bad time. He further argues that even in this stage, the story moves completely in personal and mental state and not on any theory or lust based plot, suggesting that just like sage Vishwamitra who got separated from Menaka and went to meditate, Praneshacharya could have also left Chandri and went.( Madhusudana, 2017, P.3).
Just like the incomplete old values, even the new values are not gained. It changed his life in a better and it will let him find the meaning of life. According to Sigmund Freud, every human being has to undergo the repression of “pleasure principle” to motivate behavior. But in the novel, Pranesharcharya begins to break away from the hollowness of the Brahmin ritual principles when he desires his lust in Chandri and he would be able to differentiate these experiences from the dryness of Agrahara. Praneshacharya’s fall is the hidden desire finding way upon his encounter with Chandri.
His old life begins to feel strange and foreign to him. When he finds his way back to his wife, he attempts to perform the bathing ritual for her, but for the first time in their marriage life, he sees her as disgusting and invalid that; For the first time, his eyes were beginning to see the beauty in Chandri and ugliness in his wife. He had not so far desired of any of the beauty he had read about in classics (Murthy, 1995, P.75). He begins to see the beauty of Padmavati and drives him into the world of sensuality based on her long hair, plump fleshy thighs, buttock and breasts… (Murthy, 1995, p. 118).
He no longer feels drawn towards this life of penance that he has enforced on himself. Although a born Brahmin, his idealistic characteristic of orthodox Brahmin slips giving rise to a new man. Even his compassion for his ailing wife is a source of self-righteousness and pride for him. After his fall or with the new experience leaves Agrahara “leaving everything behind” (Murthy, 1995, p.96) fulfilling the first phase “separation” of the rite de passage. Whereas as Van Gennep claims that the first phase is a symbolic behavior of detachment of the individual or group that can be witnessed one’s “cutting away” the former self from the civilian by “cutting hair” once joined in army (Gennep, 1909, p.94). Such a resembling, symbolic bahaviour is also evident in Praneshacharya when he leaves Agrahara, in search of truth leaving behind his prayer beads and a five-lace shawl.
ii. Transitional or Liminal Phase
This phase is also known as crisis phase. After the stage of separation, Praneshacharya enters into the “transitional stage.” This is the stage of limbo, when one is neither here nor there. During this stage, he experiences the inexperienced events of crisis provided him the sense of maturity and self-discovery. His exposure to the outside world of the Brahmin community brings within himself to question about the state of the orthodox Brahmins. Pranesharcharya, being initiated into the world of activity by Putta of Maleras, who becomes Praneshacharya’s guru about the ways of the world outside of his conservative agrahara. Thus, Putta takes Praneshacharya to the fascinating place at the festival of Melige, introducing him to the new world such as various shows, games, acrobats, dances and cock-fight contest and then to a local prostitute. It is evident that, noticing all the spectacles of the festival he suddenly realizes: "That art Thou." (Murthy, 1995, p.121). He is a part of it, and everything around him, in turn, is a part of him too.
According to Turner(1967), it is stated that all liminality must eventually dissolve, for it is a state of great intensity that cannot exist very long without some sort of structure to stabilize it….either the individual returns to the surrounding social structure …or else liminal communities develop their own internal social structure (p.5).
Being at this phase, Praneshacharya begins to realize the barrenness and the meaninglessness of his life outside the contacts of men (Murthy, 1995, p. 92) which symbolizes his both psychological and physical separation from the orthodox Brahmin-hood onto the world of experience and passion with timely responses to Putta’s humanely company and affection. He struggles to cope with the noisy physical world though. He says, “The dread being transformed from ghost to demon.”(Murthy, 1995, p. 115). Thus, he was unable to participate and respond to the world of ordinary pleasure and disorder and get deposited into a phase of liminality. He is neither as Brahmin nor an anti-brahmin. Remaining confused and suspended himself at this state, he even grumbles, “Now my person has lost form and found no new form.”(Murthy, 1995, p. 98) He rather endured onto the world of ghostliness. Further, it is evident in the review page of Samskara; A Rite for a Dead Man by Malissa Beck (2016) stating that should Praneshacharya go back to the agrahara and confess all of his guilt to his fellow Brahmins? Or should he seek out Chandri and fully enjoy the newly discovered world of the flesh?
There is no denying the fact to prove that Praneshacharya’s stage of liminality is in line with the relativity argument of Van Gennep’s description of transitional phase as he fails to uphold the chastity. Thus, he wanders out of the Brahmin community freely and reaches the state of limbo, never knowing his identity.
iii. Incorporation
The third stage is the re-incorporation or transformational stage. Throughout his journey of life with the trials and tribulations to attaining salvation, he experiences catharsis of liberation. He begins to realize, without experiences, the textual Vedic knowledge is useless and a symbol of barrenness within his self. Through his exposure to the world of human experiences, he begins to realize the inevitability of human interaction and interdependence. It turns to be obvious when he says, “I have involved the entire Agrahara in my act,” (p.23) which foreshadows his willingness to return to Agrahara.
The growth of moral awareness in Praneshacharya resulted from his physical intimacy with Chandri, had strengthened his intellectual and rational capacity. Further, it helps him to question self which leads to understanding of moral judgment. Further, it provides him to refine his perspectives objectively on Brahmanism. The more he begins to question the self-identity, the more his mentality seems to mature. Besides, Praneshacharya being a “Dvujan” which literally means “twice-born” in accordance with the Hindu philosophy, with the initiation of knowledge (Vedarambha), he is also said to have been thrice born. It is because his initiation of experiences that resulted from the rite of passage. Praneshacharya, being in the company of Putta, attains purgation. Finally, his quest for truth and identity is discovered and decided to get back to Durvasapura. (p.127). He gathers his self-realization and courage hoping he could actively participate in the struggles of his community including performing of death rite of Naranappa. He even witnesses the white birds return to their nest… (Murthy, 1995, p. 126).
At this phase, as cited in the review page of Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man by Malissa Beck(2016)says that Praneshacharya initiation of worldly experiences itself is a transformation; his own identity transforms from an orthodox, stagnated Brahmin-hood to an unorthodox Brahmin-hood. Thus, Praneshacharya is said to have been thrice-born.
According to Van Gennep (1977), it is stated that one, with a new identity, re-enters the society with a new status associated further with grand rituals and ceremonies such as debutant balls, college graduation, symbols of new ties with use of sacred bond and cord, the knot and other analogous forms such as the belt, the ring, the bracelet and crown etc. (p.169). Such a grandiose, auspicious ritual is not evident in the novel Samskara. Just it makes a mention that Praneshacharya would return to Agrahara. It confirms he would not move farther to achieve dharma when he gets a cart to travel back to Agrahara.
References
Beck, M. (2016). A Review on Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man. Retrieved from https://www.thestandnews.com/culture/in-review-samskara-a-rite-for-a-dead-man-by-u-r- ananthamurthy/ on April 15, 2019.
Gennep, A.(2013). The rites of passage. Routledge.
International Encyclopedia of Psychiatry Psychology (1977). Psychoanalysis &Neurology. [Eds.].
Jung, C.G. (1971). Two essays on analytical psychology. Translated by R.F.C. Hull. London: Routledge.
Murthy, A. (1987). Samkara. Translated by A. K. Ramanujan. Oxford University.
Madhusudana P.N. (2017). Quest for new values in Samskara. Pune research times: An
International journal of contemporary studies, 2(2), 1-4. Retrieved from http:/puneresearch.com/media/data/issue/58e23ea6d7d2e.pdf.
Wolman, B.B. (p.92). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company for Aesculapius Publishers.
Analysis of the Treatment of Codified History in Gordimer’s July’s People and Coetzee’s Disgrace
Introduction
Nadine Gordimer and J.M Coetzee are the renowned, self-reflective conscious writers of South Africa during the interregnum. Gordimer’s novel July’s People was published in 1981 while Coetzee’s novel Disgrace in 1999 (The period of racial segregation and the end period respectively). Both the writers’ works not only mark the transitional historical period of South Africa: apartheid to the post-apartheid system, but also represent the voice of protest through literature in bringing a change and reform in the lives of the people of South Africa. According to Homi K. Bhabha, as cited in Nation and Narration, he observes that nations and narratives have the same origin as a nation is a metaphor synthesized from political thought and literary language of any era. (Bhabha, 1990, p.2). Both the novel accounts the whites as the privileged characters falling into a precarious situation, where the old South Africa becomes unpredictable and dangerous for the transformation to new South Africa during the post-apartheid period. In July’s people (1981), Gordimer tries to trace the history of the old South Africa such as a master-servent relationship through racial segregation and role reversal of characters; Maureen and July. With Maureen’s escape to an unknown helicopter symblolises, as a last woman of an Apartheid system, an unknown future of the old South Africa, yet the new South Africa is not born. It is in line with, as cited in, Prison Notebooks that the Interregnum is the temporal period during which “the old is dying and the new cannot be born: in this interregnum, morbid phenomena of the most varied kind come to pass.”(Gramci, 1775,p.32).
On the other hand, Coetzee’s novel Disgrace (1999) traces the history of South Africa during post-apartheid system through the chracter; David’s colonial hangover, as a last man of the post-apartheid system. David’s professinal disgrace turns to personal redemption because of his relatisonship with Melanie. In the end of the novel, although David was haunted disgracefully by Lucy’s secret of intruder’s rape allegation upon her. Her acceptance of the place and child of the Blacks in her stomach symbolises the birth of new South Africa. Thus, both Gordimer and Coetzee represent both people and the country South Africa, for the rivival of history for nationhood through national consciousness. Therefore, Gordimer’s July’s People and Coetzee’s, being set in the interregnum, can be treated in the emergence of a new identity through national consciousness.
National Consciousness in Gordimer’ July’s People
As cited in Nation and Narration, Homi K. Bhabha says, “The idea of man without nation seems impossible to modern imagination. Having a nation is not an inherent attribute of humanity. But, it has emerged that nation is an inheritance, a cultural determinant. Nation and nationalism have become an integral part of people’s psyche.” (Bhaba, 1990, p.1). Set in different period of the regime of South Africa. Gordimer’s July’s people and Coetzee’s Disgrace represent the resistance for a new identity for national consciousness, tracing and decolonizing the historical and cultural background of South Africa. Their works explore the themes of individualism, nation and the nationalism as rightly mentioned by Anderson that a nation is built in imagination. (as cited in Imagined Communities, Anderson, 1983, p.37).
The term “Nation Building” is used by state for constructing the national identity. As in Nation and Narration, Bhabha says, “Nation are coming in being and we construct the meaning and symbol around in” (Bhabha, 1990, p.8). The focus of creating an identity is the main objective in the concept of nation building. In nation-building, the citizens feel the sense of collectiveness and identity through the formation of countries. There was a transition towards new nation-building or new identity of nation since the apartheid system. It was obvious that South Africa was already a state with all laws. In contrast to Bhabha’s concept of state-building as less problematic, the process of nation-building could be very problematic as it involves a mental construct. It is a process of conflict which leads to the internal conflict in the lives of the citizens. In Gordimer’s July’s people, it depicts the transition towards nation-building where whites failed to understand, which actually, is a result of the social and economic consequences of apartheid. It is because they failed to adopt the new identity that is being constructed. They fail to understand the transition and new environment or they intended to follow their own supremacy and economic positions. Tecucianu (2014) conceptualised the term Metamorphosis of Identity as one moves away from an apartheid system. It is an important aspect to note that Gordimer deconstructs the idea of nation that whites had, in the process of concept of nation-building. Her concept of deconstruction of nation is explored in the novel through the continuation of economic exploitation of Africans and the whites’ political suppression and creation of a nation where Blacks became the recipient of power. Erritouni (2006) argues that Gordimer’s July’s People does not create a full image of a post-apartheid nation, but rather, it creates an equal space of existence between whites and blacks. “Gordimer deterritorializes some recalcitrant facets of apartheid and re-territorializes the space she empties out with fresh alternatives that anticipate an egalitarian post-apartheid South Africa” (Deleuze, 1987).
The transition when a nation undergoes, it does give an effect, for example, as the effect of London’s transition after World War in Septimus in Virginia woof’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. However, in July’s People, Gordimer projects the future crisis with a space of social hell for whites through a shift of power. The power politics is the main plot of her novel she plays with. (Erritouni 2006) claims that in future, lives of whites would be deprived of their comforts as how blacks used to be deprived of. Gordimer’s July’s people portrays the nation in the process of transition through power dynamics and role reversals of characters. In a new nation, blacks fills the forefronts and are gifted with power and authority. July who was the servant is now has the authority. For instance, Maureen and Bamford Smales, who once were the masters of July; are now have to leave their home, money, and Johannesburg in the civil war. They have to seek shelter of the servant, July. At July’s place, the utility of their power and material becomes valueless.
In transition, there is role reversal of the characters. At July’s place, the role reversal is understood clearly by both Smales and July. Smales know that July has taken their stuffs, for instance; scissor, without permission. However, they lack the questions to ask him about it. Though July tries to be subservient to them by maintaining the servant’s status, he thinks he has the authority. Most often, he argues in his own language and the use of bakkie through the arguments over a key symbolizes the role reversals of master-servant relationship. It also shows his authority metaphorically. Head (1994) mentions that Gordimer has its clarity of discursive practices, in various contexts, especially on the “construction of individual identity”. The nation of Smales’ identity was dying. They could not handle the economic possession anymore. Nor do Bam’s children follow hm. He becomes a powerless patriarch. It is the evidence of the dislocation of identity physically as well as metaphorically in the process of nation building.
Gordimer’s July’s people also explores the violence and the black movement such as the Sharpeville incident of 1976 when police was opened fired the protesters. Around 575 blacks were killed by 1977 in Soweto. (Graves 1997) pointed out that when Gordimer was writing, such movements were on peak. Gordimer herself described in July’s people, “Riots, acquiring of the headquarters of international corporations, bombing in public buildings” and in support of Soweto, a march was called at Johannesburg but “fifteen thousand protester were been stopped.” (Graves, 1997). Apartheid officially became law after Nation Party came into power in 1948. People were legally categorized into four; Bantu or all black, coloured, white, and Indian. (Population Registration Act. 1950). Apartheid became an institutional policy of segregation, blacks were restricted from certain rights such as to vote, to own land, to seek an education, or to hold certain jobs. Thus, such conflicts lead to revolutionary movement throughout the country.
Graves (1997) argues that the ending of the novel is ambiguous, through referring towards the post-apartheid. Maureen runs towards the helicopter, but where the future of post-apartheid nation lies is uncertain. Shehabat (2012) refers Maureen as a symbol of colonizer, who holds racist and economic positions, and act of running is “distancing her from the world in which she lived”. Thus, her escape to an unknown destination distancing of those ideas that she symbolizes from the emerging nation. On other hand, Erritouni (2006) ensures the certainty of the future post-apartheid nation. The whites’ emerging future will be like Smales, if they fail to give up their authority and economic possessions. In the end, however, most critics could not conclude, but Ruth Levitas (1990) argues that Maureen’s run towards the helicopter can be seen as utopian, as a run towards a new identity. Gordimer perfectly captured the moments of transition from an apartheid nation into a formation of new identity of post-apartheid.
National Consciousness in J.M Coetzee’s Disgrace
Coetzee’s novel Disgrace (1999) is set in the post-apartheid regime of South Africa. He is awarded the Nobel Prize. Coetzee’s compelling novel tells the story of David Lurie, a twice divorced, 52-year-old professor of communications and romantic poetry at Cape Technical University. David, the main character seduces a non-white student, Melanie Isaacs, and is chastised for his act. David is represented as the colonial representation, depicting the last man of colonial hangover, while Melanie represents women of the period as submissive and scandalous. This novel also deals with the shift of power between the oppressed (blacks) and the oppressor (whites). However, the uprising conflicts brings role reversals and there was a birth of New South Africa which was characterized by violence.
Under the analysis of Coetzee’s Disgrace as a national allegory, in building the idea of nationalism, the lens of Frederic Jameson’s theory of reading third-world literatures as a national allegory shall be taken from his essay titled Third World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism (1986). South Africa can be literally categorized under the third-world countries along with India and many others as per the accounts of statistical indexes based on income per capita (per person), GDP, life expectancy, the rate of literacy. According to Jameson, in his essay, Third World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism states, “Third-world texts, even those which are seemingly private and invested with a properly libidinal dynamic – necessarily project a political dimension in the form of national allegory: the story of the private individual destiny is always an allegory of the embattled situation of the public third-world culture and society” (Jameson, 1986, p.5).
In Disgrace, Coetzee shows the image of the post-apartheid national scenario through the life of David Lurie, a professor, who loses the precarious balance he has maintained his life under the new regime of South Africa. He loses the centrality of his life, a world of whites and their power and supremacy. Analyzing through the lens of Jameson’s theory of allegory, David Lurie, at fifty-two falls under the colonial hangover with a defunct older social order, regulated racial oppression and the troubled pleasures of white privilege. The downfall of the university professor David Lurie that unfolds through his professional disgrace has resulted life into personal redemption. The irony here is; David, being a professor of communication and Romantic Poetry, depicts his communicative failure with students. Hence, his failure to respond to his surrounding reflects colonial attitude that results to the personal redemption. David says he has fallen into disgrace when he is questioned by the Committee of Inquiry, “I was not self…I became a servant of Eros” (Coetzee, 1999, p.52).On an idea of his romanticized Eros, and his refusal of admitting a guilt: a spirit of repentance, David’s relationship with Melanie was not based on their mutual response, but governed by an erotic spirit.
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- Tashi Gyeltshen (Autor:in), 2021, Analysis of selected texts through a flower of literary criticism, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1066562
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