This study analyzes how black and female Others in John Maxwell Coetzee's Foe and Disgrace are portrayed as animals, and examines how colonialists oppress them by dehumanizing them. The Others compared to animals are portrayed as resisting figures rat...
This study analyzes how black and female Others in John Maxwell Coetzee's Foe and Disgrace are portrayed as animals, and examines how colonialists oppress them by dehumanizing them. The Others compared to animals are portrayed as resisting figures rather than conforming to the discourse of domination that suppresses them. This paper examines the meaning of the resistance they make and analyzes how female Others, in particular, develop into independent women through resistance.
Chapter II analyzes how colonialists in the novel compare black and female Others, Friday and Melanie, to various animals such as ‘dog’, ‘horse’, ‘rabbit’, and ‘mole’ and disparage them as inferior beings. Susan can be regarded as a woman who dehumanizes Friday and forces him to learn the white language. That is why Friday’s gaze toward Susan can be interpreted as an act of resistance not to obey her. This chapter also analyzes Melanie as a woman who resists the discourse of domination and achieves an independent life.
Chapter III examines how Susan and Lucy, the white female Others in the novels, are described as animals and oppressed figures in a patriarchal society. Even Susan, who dehumanizes Friday, is being illustrated as animals and lower-class people such as ‘Gypsies’. This chapter explores how she challenges men's authority through writing. In addition, I analyze how Lucy, who has been described as a dog in Disgrace, resists her father and develops into an autonomous woman.
Colored races and women who were the inferior Others in terms of race and gender were in a similar situation socially and culturally in the 18th and 19th centuries. This study examined the reality of the society when women could not pursue free life due to male oppression. Likewise, this thesis compared colored races and female Others who were described as animals and analyzed the meaning of the oppression caused by colonialism and patriarchy. It also grasped the meaning of resistances of women challenging the discourse of domination.