Mourning and Female Resilience: A Posthumanist Reading of Lucy in Disgrace

Abstract

This paper examines Lucy Lurie's response to sexual assault in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, focusing on her decision to remain on her farm and her interactions with the natural environment. Employing Rosi Braidotti’s posthuman feminist theory, the study explores how Lucy's engagement with non-human entities—such as caring for animals and cultivating the land—serves as a means of processing trauma. These actions reflect a departure from traditional, anthropocentric approaches to trauma recovery, suggesting an alternative pathway that emphasizes interconnectedness with the more-than-human world. The paper argues that Lucy's silence and non-verbal practices represent a form of resistance and resilience, challenging patriarchal and colonial narratives. Through this lens, the novel grants Lucy a distinct voice—not through conventional dialogue, but through her embodied actions and choices. This narrative approach proposes an alternative framework for women to navigate trauma and sexual violence, emphasizing non-verbal, embodied forms of expression and healing. Through this lens, Disgrace offers insights into how posthumanist perspectives can inform understandings of female subjectivity and trauma in literature.