According to postcolonial theory, postcolonial literature tends to depict non-Westerners – the native Other – as a homogenous mass, portrayed as carrying all the dark human traits. The Other is often represented as, for instance, being exotic, violent, hostile and mysterious, and either stands in opposition to, or is portrayed as being completely different from the Westerner. With postcolonial theory as a background, this study is a close-reading analysis and comparison of Albert Camus’ The Stranger (1942), which takes place in a colonial Algeria, and J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999), which is set in postcolonial South Africa. The novels have been analysed in terms of representation of the Other, as well as the power relations and hierarchy between Westerners and natives, in order to see if these aspects are portrayed differently due to the fact that one novel is written pre-independence and the other post-independence. The results show that the representation of the Other is in accordance with postcolonial theory, in both novels. The natives are exoticised, portrayed as violent and mysterious in a hostile manner, and the plot is viewed from the perspective of the Western, white male protagonist. However, the power relations differ; in The Stranger, the Westerners are definitely superior, whereas in Disgrace, some of the characters still consider themselves to be superior, but their power has declined – the natives strike back, leaving the white population with a choice: to comply to the new order, or to find themselves in a state of disgrace.

Denne mastergraden er en intertekstuell og fortelleteknisk analyse av J. M. Coetzees Disgrace. Romanen forholder seg nært til et Sør-Afrika kort tid etter oppløsningen av apartheid. Den har blitt lest realistisk, og har blitt kraftig kritisert for å fremstille en pågående rasisme i Sør-Afrika. Denne avhandlingen leser romanen som en postmoderne tekst og bruker Gerrard Genette sine teorier om transtekstualitet for å vise hvor omfattende leken med litteratur er i Disgrace.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [176]-186).

Thesis--Uppsala university, 1999. / Bibliogr. p. 209-219.

Thesis (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains i, 81 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-81).

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of English, General Literature and Rhetoric, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 305-325). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Zugl.: Erlangen, Nürnberg, Univ., Diss., 2007

Doctoral diss.--Göteborg--Göteborgs universitet, 1996. / Résumé. Bibliogr. p. 185-196.

Scholars argue that Coetzee’s novels critique and disavow the origins and legacy of the novel tradition and its influence on the contemporary novel. They also claim that J.M. Coetzee’s novels herald in the demise of the contemporary novel. These interpretations are motivated by the political readings of postcolonialism and postmodernism. The premise of this dissertation is to depart from those postcolonial and postmodern approaches and offer close readings of Coetzee’s novels through the origins and legacy of the early eighteenth-and nineteenth century novel. My study argues that several of Coetzee’s novels allude to the intellectual, historical, and cultural legacies of the eighteenth-and nineteenth-century novel. I argue that the origin and rise of the English novel and its subgenres provide Coetzee with ideas to use in his own novels. These paradigms in Coetzee’s novels espouse —rather than renounce — the influence and tradition of the early novel, showing that its inspiration remains relevant in the contemporary novel. Thus, the general premise of this dissertation is that Coetzee does not necessarily “write back” to the canon and the origins of English novel, but rather he writes through and with those enduring forms and structures. This study shows that there are literary connections between the early beginnings of the novel and the contemporary novel that offer cogent examinations —examinations that find compromise between the past and present rarely made through postcolonial or postmodern approaches.