ANALYZING INTERTEXTUALITY IN COETZEE’S DISRACE: A POSTMODERN CRITIQUE

This paper aims at analyzing J. M. Coetzee’s use of intertextuality in his most phenomenal novel Disgrace. In postmodern literature, intertextuality plays a fundamental role as postmodern fiction sifts to historical and literary intertexts. Postmodern fiction points to the reality that by means of other texts we understand the past and that there is an intertextuality in all the historical accounts. Postmodern fiction tells us that only through its fragments, relics, and its textualized remains canwe know the past. This paper explores the intertextual presence of romantic poets in the novel and the influence of romantic period on post-apartheid minds. Lurie’s connection with the romantic poets is not of the kind to exchange of sources or sentences to assist his ideas or the transmission of his message rather he is affected to the point that he refers himself to them and follows their concepts of existence, females, history, and longing. Thus, the juxtaposition of Wordsworth, Byron and David Laurie will form the basis of this paper.