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Bestiaries the animal and the human in Mila Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being and J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace
Includes abstract.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of English Language and Literature
2014
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| _version_ | 1867613184948436993 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Bedini, Daniella Cadiz |
| author2 | Clarkson, Carrol |
| author_browse | Bedini, Daniella Cadiz Clarkson, Carrol |
| author_facet | Clarkson, Carrol Bedini, Daniella Cadiz |
| author_sort | Bedini, Daniella Cadiz |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes abstract. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9996 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:07.214Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publishDateRange | 2014 |
| publishDateSort | 2014 |
| publisher | Department of English Language and Literature |
| publisherStr | Department of English Language and Literature |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9996 Bestiaries the animal and the human in Mila Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being and J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace Bedini, Daniella Cadiz Clarkson, Carrol English in Literature and Modernity Includes abstract. In his book, The Open (2004), Giorgio Agamben suggests that the border between the human and the animal passes "first of all as a mobile border within living man". At stake in the construction of this border is a division of the human and the animal into separate and homogenous groups, and subsequently a denial of a multiplicity of life forms and experience. This relates to what Derrida (2004) has deemed "the self-interested misrecognition of what is called the Animal in general", and is something other critics working in the field of animal studies have discussed. In this thesis I read Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being and J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace in line with Agamben's notion of the fluidity of the human-animal border. The first chapter of this dissertation, 'Behaving like Animals', offers a reading of the biblical tale of Genesis and of the numerous sexual encounters in the novels that complicate the assumption of shame as being 'proper to man'. The second chapter, "Alternative lives, Alternative Deaths", challenges the idea of Driepoot's death in Disgrace as being "euthanasia" and, moreover, examines the complexities of mourning the death of what Jeff McMahan has deemed "beings on the margins of life", which includes both humans and animals. In my analysis of these novels, I have borrowed from different, seemingly disconnected, critical discourses. In some cases, this has meant "inserting" the animal into these theories in places where the animal was not explicitly named. This has meant putting pressure on existing lines of enquiry. My multi-disciplinary approach to theorising animals, and our relations to and with them, suggests different avenues for research in the growing field of animal studies. 2014-12-25T15:47:34Z 2014-12-25T15:47:34Z 2013 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9996 eng application/pdf Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | English in Literature and Modernity Bedini, Daniella Cadiz Bestiaries the animal and the human in Mila Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being and J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Bestiaries the animal and the human in Mila Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being and J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace |
| title_full | Bestiaries the animal and the human in Mila Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being and J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace |
| title_fullStr | Bestiaries the animal and the human in Mila Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being and J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bestiaries the animal and the human in Mila Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being and J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace |
| title_short | Bestiaries the animal and the human in Mila Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being and J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace |
| title_sort | bestiaries the animal and the human in mila kundera s the unbearable lightness of being and j m coetzee s disgrace |
| topic | English in Literature and Modernity |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9996 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bedinidaniellacadiz bestiariestheanimalandthehumaninmilakunderastheunbearablelightnessofbeingandjmcoetzeesdisgrace |