Exploring Intertexuality in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace

Abstract

M. Coetzee is a writer who lived and worked in South Africa under the apartheid rule until 1990. He used his works to unveil the transition in the political world. He has found a new way of creating the South African world, rejecting all conventional modes. A creative writing is always a rewriting which highlights the trace of various texts, sometimes consciously and often unknowingly. These texts can be historical, political, social or any other which advocates the idea of intertexuality. Therefore, every work is a reflection of the author’s past experiences and readings. John Maxwell Coetzee has woven his novel ‘Disgrace’ in the frame of intertexuality, where the English romantic movement had been projected in the context of politically changed South Africa. Creative works by any author are no longer seen as only his imaginative creation. All works are considered as the products of prior works in any field of knowledge. In the process of understanding any text, it is believed that our knowledge is structured and dynamic in nature. It is mainly derived from our concept of the world through the use of language which comprises all genres. Readers of the world are integrated into single world humanity. Similarly, all texts, whether literary or non-literary, are ‘intertextual’.