Stapleton, Katia2022-08-222022-08-222022-08-22http://hdl.handle.net/10222/81866This thesis examines David Lurie’s transgressive thoughts and behaviours in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999) and draws conclusions about their function. Using Michel Foucault’s definition of transgression – which classifies it as a productive means to question tacit laws – the central argument maintains that David’s predatory behaviours, paradoxical rationalizations, and unboundaried ideas about fatherhood are necessary efforts to question various social roles in the context of the post-apartheid period. I also contend that David’s conflation of sexual desire and fatherly care in Disgrace points to one of Coetzee’s larger projects: to dismantle glossy ideas about nuclear family structures and to expose the white patriarchal Afrikaner ideals that persist in South Africa even after the end of apartheid.enSouth Africapost-apartheidJ.M. Coetzeepatriarchytransgression