Linking Misery and Identity: Exploring Coetzee’s Novel Disgrace from the Perspective of Relative Deprivation Theory

Abstract

This study explores Coetzee’s novel Disgrace (1999) for identity issues and relative deprivation within the framework of Tedd Gurr’s (1970) theory of social deprivation and identity by applying the qualitative method. The application of the relative deprivation theory of identity by Ted Gurr is foundational, pertaining to the primary text; the theory postulates that an individual's identity is shaped by the social environment or society. In other words, social rootlessness, alienation and deprivation are responsible for the make-up of an individual’s identity. Tedd Gur thinks that, when frustration is too sustained then it yields dangerous repercussions resulting in violence and extremist activities (Al-Hourani, 2012); Zahir et.al, 2019). It finds out that different characters of the novel, like David Laurie, undergo broader socio-political circumstances, and social deprivation and alienation to eventually become an outcast in the post-apartheid South Africa. In the novel, the central character David Laurie faces and struggles with the problems of social deprivation, rootlessness, alienation and disgrace at an individual level and in the backdrop of post-apartheid South Africa. The study undertaken is closely significant for themes of disgrace, social alienation, degradation, shame and the interwoven complex web of personal and collective identity.