"Like a dog. . . like a lamb": Becoming Sacrificial Animal in Kafka and Coetzee

Abstract

Beginning with Franz Kafka's astonishing claim to Max Brod that the writer is the "scapegoat of mankind," this article discusses the treatment of the biblical figure of the scapegoat in Kafka's story "A Report to an Academy" and Coetzee's two novels, Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello. Through a comparison of these works, I argue that the reader's/character's/author's identification with the figure of the sacrificial animal constitutes a primal scene of narrative in the work of both Kafka and Coetzee.