Chapter III The Disintegration of Colonial Consciousness: Animal Empathy in Decolonizing Society .................... 37
3.1 The Empathetic Experience of Animal Suffering ........................ 37
3.2 The Empathetic Affirmation of Animal Existence ........................ 40
3.3 The Empathetic Life with Animal Companions ..................... 43
Conclusion .............................. 48
Chapter III The Disintegration of Colonial Consciousness: Animal Empathy in Decolonizing Society
3.1 The Empathetic Experience of Animal Suffering
Huggan and Tiffin believe that animals are sentient beings, which are be able to perceive pains and feel uncomfortable. And the deprivation of their feelings is anthropocentrism at its best. And the best way to eliminate prejudice against animals is empathy. The ability to empathize is the foundation of sympathy, and only by empathizing with animals can humans truly sympathize with them, then deep in the inner state of others. In this process, the first step is to go through the same suffering with animals. Through the empathic experience of animals’ pain, humans can realize the pain of animals is shared with that of them, and their sensation is identical. In this way, people can understand and agree the animal suffering and truly sympathetic to them even learn to treat them well.
In the novel, Lurie gives up his high-minded attitude after fierce catastrophe. He learns to empathize with the animal’s hurt, to enter into an emotional union with the animal, to share the animal’s feelings, and try to see the world through the eyes of animals. We can see he really walks into the animals, and even being the animals. Finally, he finds his own salvation in the compassion and such change also carries a bright future in post-colonial society.
Conclusion
Disgrace is set in the background of postcolonial society, in which South Africa just finished long-time apartheid. In this time, to alleviate the conflicts between blacks and whites and build a harmonious New South African society has become the focus and necessity. The frequent appearance of animals in the novel is not accident, as the bond and carrier of the novel, animals play a powerful role in anti-speciesism, anti-human-centered thought and anti-colonial hegemony. Animal study in postcolonialism is a good perspective to interpret Lurie’s change and salvation in such society, especially reflecting the process of elimination of his colonial consciousness. This thesis uses Huggan and Tiffin’s postcolonial zoocriticism to analyze white people’s changes in attitudes toward animals and disclose salvation strategies found through animals in post-apartheid society.
First of all, the traditional western civilization is the cause of Lurie’s prejudice to animal watching, which is also the expression of his colonial consciousness. As a representative of Romanticism and an admirer of Romantic poets, Lurie has a romantic and imaginative view of animals. His use of animal metaphors not only presents poetic images of animals, but also shows a strong idea of the white empire. Animals are the symbol of lust, animal survival of the fittest is the embodiment of white superiority. Driven by anthropocentrism, rationalism, and racism, Lurie takes animals for granted as irrational others, firmly believing that humans and animals are not equal, that animals are subject to human domination. So Lurie eats the flesh of animals without guilt, uses them as tools, and has no sympathy or empathy for their plight. At the same time, because of the influence of colonization and the identity of the descendants of the colonists, the animals Lurie sees are racial and colonial. Behind Lurie’s animal-watching lies the enormous influence of western civiliza
