In this essay I look at J.M Coetzee’s Disgrace from a rather different perspective. I argue that, despite his less than heroic attributes, David Lurie is the protagonist of an adventure and follows Joseph Campbell’s pattern of the hero’s ditto. Furthermore, the goal of David Lurie’s journey lies in self-realization and self-reinvention, which is not typical for the hero’s journey. The Ultimate Boon is usually something else but different times call for different heroes. In J.M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading, Derek Attridge suggests that David Lurie grows on the reader throughout the novel and is a better person at the end (Attridge 183). This indicates that David Lurie goes through a process personally that changes him in a positive direction. Besides Campbell’s theory, the theories of Propp and Stanford are presented and put to good use as theoretical background. Since this essay deals with both narratology and structuralism I provide short explanations of these two branches of literature criticism as presented in Peter Barry’s Beginning Theory. I then discuss relevant passages from Disgrace in connection with the different stages of the hero’s journey as described by Campbell. I do so in the order they are presented in Campbell’s book.

Cette thèse porte sur l’impuissance de l’ambition littéraire à transcrire fidèlement la barbarie absolue. A partir de la poétique de la disgrâce, elle interroge d’abord le rapport entre écriture et expérience extrême puis, met en exergue les stratégies narratives régissant les récits qui tentent une littérarisation d’expériences jugées indicibles. Elle est ensuite une réflexion sur le statut même de la littérature contemporaine. L’analyse poétique conduit à affirmer dans une première partie que les récits de la catastrophe sont construits autour d’un dilemme : l’indicible, fondé sur l’impuissance du langage rationnel à la nommer, et la nécessité malgré tout de dépasser les frontières de « l’impossible à dire ». Et c’est le renversement de l’écriture de la disgrâce en disgrâce de l’écriture comme procédé esthétique qui permet ce dépassement. La deuxième partie permet de constater la récurrence de certains invariants se présentant comme éléments pertinents de littérarité. C’est notamment le cas du recours à la désacralisation de l’écriture. Celle-ci engendre une littérature du vide, de l’incertitude. C’est ensuite la notion de fragmentation du sujet qui place véritablement nos œuvres tantôt dans la littérature postmoderne occidentale ou bien dans littérature de la postcolonie africaine. / This thesis deals with the unability of literary ambition to faithfully transcribe absolute barbarism. Using the poetics of disgrace, it questions the relationship between writing and extreme experience on the one hand, and brings out the narrative strategies governing the stories attempting a novelization of experiences judged unspeakable on the other. It is then a reflection on the very status of contemporary literature.The poetic analysis leads us to affirm in a first part that tales of catastrophe are built on a dilemma: the unspeakable; based on the powerlessness of rational language to name it and the necessity, despite it all, to transcend the frontiers of the “impossible to say”. And it is the reversal of the writing of disgrace into the disgrace of writing as an aesthetical means which allows this transcendence. The second part allows us to see the recurrence of some invariants presenting themselves as pertinent elements of writing. This engenders a literature of the void, of uncertainty. It is then the notion of the subject’s fragmentation which truly places our works either in western postmodern literature or in African postcolonial literature.

Esta dissertação trata dos Estudos Animais, área que se desenvolve como um rico campo de interdisciplinaridade já em sua origem. Mas para que não se julgue aprioristicamente um campo em suas particularidades, há que se esclarecer pontos em comum aos teóricos das mais diversas origens acadêmicas que compõem os Estudos animais e traçar planos para um futuro significativo. Após estabelecer os necessários diálogos entre teoria e campo social, passo à análise de certos pontos das obras Desonra e Elizabeth Costello, com o objetivo de evidenciar o potencial deste corpus para o desenvolvimento da crítica das categorias de humanidade e animalidade segundo os aportes do Pós-humanismo e inserindo-a no campo dos Estudos Animais. O teórico fundamental para este trabalho é Jacques Derrida, principalmente em sua obra O animal que logo sou. Após apresentar um panorama dos Estudos Animais, sobretudo sob a abordagem de Paul Waldau, trago ao encontro desses autores a pós-humanista Rosi Braidotti, de cuja obra The Post-human retiro as categorias do devir-planetário e devir-animal, as quais dão consequência às análises do corpus literário deste trabalho. Dialogo, ainda, com a Mitleidsethik, a ética da compaixão de Schopenhauer. Concluo que as tarefas dos Estudos Animais e do Pós-humanismo se assemelham no que toca à maior compreensão das interações interespecíficas, para a proposição consequente de novas formas de conviver num mundo mais-que-humano. / This dissertation deals with the Animal Studies, an area that develops as a rich field of interdisciplinarity already in its origin.. But in order not to make an aprioristic judgement of a field in its particularities, it is necessary to clarify points in common to the theoreticians of the most diverse academic origins that compose the Animal Studies and to draw up plans for a significant future. After establishing the necessary dialogues between theory and social field, I proceed to the analysis of certain points of the works Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello, with the objective of highlighting the potential of this corpus for the development of the critique of the categories of humanity and animality according to the contributions of Posthumanism and inserting it in the field of Animal Studies. The fundamental theorist for this work is Jacques Derrida, mainly in his work O animal que logo sou. After presenting an overview of the Animal Studies, especially under the approach of Paul Waldau, I bring to the meeting the post-humanist Rosi Braidotti, whose work The post-human retreat the categories of becoming-earth and becoming-animal, which give consequence to the analysis of the literary corpus of this work. I also dialogue with the Mitleidsethik, the ethic of compassion of Schopenhauer. I conclude that the tasks of Animal Studies and Post-humanism are similar in relation to the greater understanding of the inter-species interactions, for the consequent proposition of new ways of living in a more-than-human world.

The aim of this study is to examine how girls from the discussion group "Coolt med koll" understand the phenomenon honor-related violence. The study is based upon three issues; how do our informants understand honor-related violence, where do the interviewed obtain information concerning honor-related violence and how do it affect their point of view, last but not least what do the girls know regarding children‟s rights. The theoretical points of this study are theories about honor-related living conditions and radical feminist theory. The study is carried out through six semi-structured qualitative interviews, which all are conducted separately. The results of this study obtained that the informants have limited knowledge of honor-related violence and that it‟s further difficult for them to connect the term with its context. The interviewed obtain a cultural and religious perspective when they highlight the phenomenon. The results also shows that the informants collect information about honor-related violence from different sources, their understandings differ depending on where they have gained information. Further the results reveal that half of our interviewees are well aware of children‟s rights and half of our interviewees are not.

Esta dissertação trata dos Estudos Animais, área que se desenvolve como um rico campo de interdisciplinaridade já em sua origem. Mas para que não se julgue aprioristicamente um campo em suas particularidades, há que se esclarecer pontos em comum aos teóricos das mais diversas origens acadêmicas que compõem os Estudos animais e traçar planos para um futuro significativo. Após estabelecer os necessários diálogos entre teoria e campo social, passo à análise de certos pontos das obras Desonra e Elizabeth Costello, com o objetivo de evidenciar o potencial deste corpus para o desenvolvimento da crítica das categorias de humanidade e animalidade segundo os aportes do Pós-humanismo e inserindo-a no campo dos Estudos Animais. O teórico fundamental para este trabalho é Jacques Derrida, principalmente em sua obra O animal que logo sou. Após apresentar um panorama dos Estudos Animais, sobretudo sob a abordagem de Paul Waldau, trago ao encontro desses autores a pós-humanista Rosi Braidotti, de cuja obra The Post-human retiro as categorias do devir-planetário e devir-animal, as quais dão consequência às análises do corpus literário deste trabalho. Dialogo, ainda, com a Mitleidsethik, a ética da compaixão de Schopenhauer. Concluo que as tarefas dos Estudos Animais e do Pós-humanismo se assemelham no que toca à maior compreensão das interações interespecíficas, para a proposição consequente de novas formas de conviver num mundo mais-que-humano. / This dissertation deals with the Animal Studies, an area that develops as a rich field of interdisciplinarity already in its origin.. But in order not to make an aprioristic judgement of a field in its particularities, it is necessary to clarify points in common to the theoreticians of the most diverse academic origins that compose the Animal Studies and to draw up plans for a significant future. After establishing the necessary dialogues between theory and social field, I proceed to the analysis of certain points of the works Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello, with the objective of highlighting the potential of this corpus for the development of the critique of the categories of humanity and animality according to the contributions of Posthumanism and inserting it in the field of Animal Studies. The fundamental theorist for this work is Jacques Derrida, mainly in his work O animal que logo sou. After presenting an overview of the Animal Studies, especially under the approach of Paul Waldau, I bring to the meeting the post-humanist Rosi Braidotti, whose work The post-human retreat the categories of becoming-earth and becoming-animal, which give consequence to the analysis of the literary corpus of this work. I also dialogue with the Mitleidsethik, the ethic of compassion of Schopenhauer. I conclude that the tasks of Animal Studies and Post-humanism are similar in relation to the greater understanding of the inter-species interactions, for the consequent proposition of new ways of living in a more-than-human world.