UNVEILING THE GAZE: PATRIACHAL POWER AND FEMALE RESISTANCE IN DISGRACE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v6i5.663Keywords:
Coetzee, disgrace, gendered representation, male gaze, resistanceAbstract
This study interrogates the intersection of gaze, power, and resistance in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, exposing the gendered mechanisms that sustain patriarchal dominance in post-apartheid South Africa. The main objective is to examine how female subjectivity is constructed and subverted through the male gaze, drawing on Foucault’s notion of disciplinary power and Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory of the gaze. The research adopts a qualitative textual analysis grounded in feminist literary criticism, examining the characters Soraya, Melanie, and Bev Shaw as symbolic representations of women’s negotiation with surveillance, objectification, and self-definition. Through this methodological lens, Soraya’s exoticized compliance, Melanie’s silence, and Bev Shaw’s ethical autonomy reveal distinct forms of counter-conduct and resistance. The results highlight that the gaze operates as both a disciplinary mechanism and a site of potential rebellion, where women strategically reclaim agency through withdrawal, silence, or ethical subversion. The discussion demonstrates that Coetzee not only critiques male desire and moral hypocrisy but also foregrounds the transformative potential of female resistance. In conclusion, Disgrace becomes a critical lens through which power, gender, and morality are destabilized, illustrating that within systems of domination, resistance emerges not from confrontation but from the subtle rearticulation of subjectivity and gaze itself.
References
[1] Adams, C.J. (2018): The sexual politics of meat. – In Living with Contradictions, Routledge 9p.
[2] Butler, J. (2011): Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of sex. – Routledge 256p.
[3] Coetzee, J.M. (1999): Disgrace. – Secker & Warburg 219p.
[4] Dabashi, H. (2020): Reversing the colonial gaze: Persian travelers abroad. – Cambridge University Press 10: 8p.
[5] Foucault, M. (2016). Discipline and punish. – In Social Theory Re-Wired, Routledge 10p.
[6] Foucault, M. (2007): Security, territory, population: lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-78. – Springer 417p.
[7] Foucault, M. (2002): The birth of the clinic. – Routledge 288p.
[8] Foucoult, M. (1975): Discipline and punish. – In A. Sheridan, Tr., Paris, FR, Gallimard (Ed.) Vintage Books 353p.
[9] Mill, J.S., Mill, J.S. (1966): From the subjection of women. – Macmillan Education UK 20p.
[10] Mulvey, L. (2013): Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. – In Feminism and Film Theory, Routledge 11p.
[11] Said, E.W. (1977): Orientalism. – The Georgia Review 31(1): 162-206.
[12] Spectators, B.F. (2008): The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators. – Boston: South End Press 17p.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 XIAOYU CHEN, HALIMAH MOHAMED ALI, MOHD SHAHREMY IKMAL SHAHBUDIN
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
