PROBLEMATIC HUMANIZATION AND SILENCING IN DISGRACE

Abstrak

This paper dismantles the anthropocentric hierarchy ingrained in J.M. Coetzee's novel Disgrace, exposing how the narrative itself enacts epistemic violence against animality. Rather than a heroic progression toward empathy, David Lurie's growing connection to animals proves problematic, reinforcing speciesist paradigms through ventriloquism and projection. The literary treatment of animals as mute symbols for human interests perpetuates their exploitation. Coetzee's focalization through Lurie maintains critical distance, implicating the reader in this symbolic violence that renders animals voiceless. Interrogating Lurie's relationship with the bulldog Katy reveals the dehumanizing force of naming and embodiment within speciesist power relations. The narrative act silences animality, underscoring the need for new ethical frameworks beyond anthropocentrism. Only by moving past problematic tropes of humanization can literature embrace plural ways of being and knowing in the more-than-human world.

Kata Kunci