Okay, so, I was kicking around a couple of half-formed ideas for our next paper…they’re just baby ideas, so be kind to them…

First: going on the whole “family and nation” thing – I was thinking of how Petrus refers to Pollux as “my kind” (I don’t have a page number…haven’t found it yet). Sometimes races/ethnicities (I’m going to use these words interchangeably for a minute, even though I know they’re different) refer to other people within that race as one’s brothers and sisters; for many people, there is a strong correlation between a sense of family and an established identity through one’s heritage/ethnicity. Consequently, the unconditional support family members can have for each other is especially strong for people within a race. People feel kinship for other people that share their family history/ancestry. Petrus is ready to defend Pollux, even though he was a part of something atrocious. This idea could be tied in with the setting of post-apartheid Africa and the area politics at that time.

My second baby idea – and I like this one a little more – would be to compare and contrast the father figures of both Disgrace and Oscar Wao. I like the idea, but I think I’m having trouble fleshing out the “why this is relevant” part. Maybe not. I’m thinking that I could spin this into an examination of family roles based on a nation/race/culture/ethnicity’s expectations for that role. Abelard and David both have daughters; the first wants to protect his daughter from having her innocence spoiled, the latter has already seen it happen, and is grappling with the aftermath. However, what each daughter has been or would be subjected to ties in closely with the idea of the “nation” in both novels. Abelard struggles to protect his daughter because of Trujillo. David has difficulty getting justice for Lucy’s rape because of the state of things in Africa – rape has become a common occurrence because of the political/social climate. My point being, an American father – for example – whose daughter is raped has much more room to seek justice for her. There is also less chance of an American father’s daughter having to fear being raped because of her corrupt dictatorial government. Thus, the expectations for the role of the father changes based on the culture that family comes from.

That’s all I have so far…