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to engageinthesubverteddialogue betweenthe oppressor andthe oppressed. Fromtheimperialist

point of view, History is the invention of the empire. Prior to the establishment of the empire people

could live without regard to time the establishment of empire moved time into a different dimension;

history became necessary as a means of relating the people and the events of the empire to the passing

of time. Having created history, empire cannot escape it: Empire dooms itself to live in history and plot

against history.Gitzen further noteshow by thetime Coetzee writesFoe Coetzeemoves from being

concerned withtheeffects ofthehistorical process onindividualsto how historicalmaterialismodified

andtransformedand whatisgainedandlostinthe process.Gitzenquotes Richard Martinto elucidate,

What is being explored is not history in and particular phase but History in general, in the abstract, theideal essence of history rather than the diffuse material practices and structures which constitute real

history. So whether engaging or wishingto escapethedestructive processes ofhistory, Coetzee

repeatedly demonstrateshow insome fashion overtakesandexactstribute from usall. Thereisno

frontier remoteenoughto conceal us. Those who aresilent whether throughchoice or necessity,are

subjectto abuseandexploitation. Butsilence of ones own volitionsisquitedifferent frominvoluntarily

losing onestongue. So Friday from Coetzees Foe,andhis kindmusthavethe power ofexpressionand

must useitifthey areto participateintheshaping of Africanhistory concludesGitzen.

Writtenduringthehighly mediatized proceedings of South Africas Truthand Reconciliation

Commission, Coetzees Disgraceisstructuredaroundinterrogations. Languageacquiresa performativeintonation. Protagonists retaintheir enforced or self-imposedsolitude,theeffect of reality is raw and

obliquely allegoricalandsilence frustratesandspeakslouder asa form of rebellion, rejectionand

reconciliation withandagainsttimeandhistory. Rebecca Saundersinher essay Disgrace in the Time of a

Truth CommissiontakesGitzens work withthehistorical processandthe role oflanguage further by

contextualizingit withintheinterrogativeexpiation-seekingmechanismthat wasthe Truthand

Reconciliation Commission. She points outhow thenovel proceedsaroundinterrogationsandhow

characters reactto thedemands oftheinterrogations: beitthe Universitysinvestigationinto David

Luries relationship withhisstudent Melanie Isaacs; Melanies fathersand boyfriendsinterrogation of

Lurie; theday oftesting onthe farm, Luriessubsequentinquisitioninto Lucysmotives for not

pursuinga rapetrial; andhisinterrogation of Lucysneighbor Petrus, who Luriesuspects of beinginvolvedin, or atleasthaving knowledge of,theattack. She begins by outliningthequestionsthathaunt

both Disgraceandthe TRC,i.e. whether the visceral,definedastheinstinctiveanddeeply embodied,

can be reasonable, or isin oppositionto reason; or whether reason,justiceandtruthare by nature

eviscerated, whether they inevitably translatethe visceralinto abstract value,disembodiedmeaning or

immaterial recovery. Dr. Rasoolduring David Luriessexualharassmenthearing protestsagainsthis

economicconception ofjustice by demanding asuitable performancethatdemonstratesa visceral

transformationshoulderingthe former will functionasanassurance ofthelatter. Shedemandsa

certainenactment or display asanecessary constituent of responsibility asdoes Lurie whenhe yearns

anddemandsarticulation from Petrus ofhis roleintheattack and Lucyssubmissive responseto the

attack. Saunders bringsinto Nietzschesconception ofguiltas adischargeabledebt which relies onanidiom ofequalizing; translatinghumanactionandsufferinginto calculable valuesmakingjusticeinto

more or lessa branch ofaccounting. Muchlikethe TRCs truth for amnesty dealasessentially

exchangingjustice for truth, or asmerely cancelingdebts rather thanexacting payment for them. This

evisceratedlogic,in Nietzschesanalysis,isasublimationanddisplacement ofaffect,adiversionthat

largely settleddebts by disgracing perpetrators rather than providingmaterial reparation for victims. In

Disgrace, Luries objectionsare primarily againstthis institutionally disciplinedtruth. It wasatruththat

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wasexclusive, withno place for thenon-conciliatory narrativesthathamperedthecommissionsand

nationstruth. Co-relating withGitzen,itisthesesilentnarrativesandtheir active reactionsagainsttheir

exclusionthat Lurieis forcedto faceasheconfrontsthe barren realities of Lucyscrucifiedexistence,as

headjuststo Lucys owndecisionto become onesuchnon-conciliatory ignorednarrative ofthe post-

apartheid South Africa. Saundersconcludesthat Disgrace dramatizestheambiguity of whatitmeansto

acceptcharges,questionstheefficacy of bothconfessionandthespectacle ofdeliberationas warrants

oftruth,signalstheconstraintsentailedintheinstitutional production oftruth, weighsthesignificance

ofmaterialand psychological forms of recovery andconsidersthedegreeto whichinterrogation

functionsasa form of punishment.

Disgrace refusesto resolveallthequestionsthatit raises. AsGitzenand Saunders point out, Coetzee

engageslanguagethatembodiescharacters,ideasandsituationsto tacklecomplex moral,ethicaland

politicalissuesthatexcludethesilentandallow acontinuinghalf-lifeto thedregs ofhistory. History,no

longer uncomplicatedly alive,is voicedinitsembeddednessinlifeandtheinescapability ofthe

individualandthecollectivein facingandadaptingto it.

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