Language's Grace: Redemption and Education in J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace

Abstract How does the work of the Nobel Prize novelist J.M. Coetzee bear on the question of the relations between philosophy, literature and education? This paper extends recent discussion of the ways Coetzee's literature can speak to a broad range of philosophical questions by showing how the novel Disgrace is open to exploration in relation to education. Working through some early scenes in Coetzee's novel, I suggest that Disgrace points us towards forms of degeneration that can be understood in the light of certain conceptions of language. Yet consideration of flickering moments of optimism found in later parts of the novel shows also that Disgrace reveals the possibilities of grace. Grace, as we shall see, is to be understood not as a matter of elegance and refinement, but rather in relation to language and to ‘what gives’ in the word. This reveals something about the role of literature in education, providing means to test the prevalent view that literature is a moral or cultural enclave.