ASES VIII. INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCES CONFERENCE APRIL 13-14, 2024, IZMIR, TURKIYE CONFERENCE BOOK 213 213 THE MORAL LESSON IN “THE DOG” BY J.M. COETZEE J.M. COETZEE’NİN “THE DOG” HİKAYESİNDEKİ AHLAK DERSİ İbrahim KOÇ 1 , Kemal ÇAPOĞLU 2 1 Lect. PhD, Ordu University, English Language and Literature, ORCID: 0000-0001-9510-3376 2 Lect. PhD, Gümüşhane Üniversitesi, English Language and Literature, ORCID: 0000-0002-9268-4184 Abstract South African-Australian novelist John Maxwell Coetzee is well known for his tendency to include animals—especially dogs—into his works. Through his literary works Coetzee frequently invites readers to consider the complex interplay between the biological and cultural aspects of the human condition and our relationship with nature. His short story, “The Dog”, debuted in The New Yorker in 2017, portrays a character, potentially an immigrant figure, serving as a symbolic embodiment of the marginalized “sexual and ethnic Other” while simultaneously emphasising the psychological terror induced by a guard dog and the discourse of dominance exposed by its owners. The narrative begins with illustrating the perpetual threat posed to the female protagonist by the guard dog, identified as the chien méchant (vicious dog in French), a formidable dog owned by a Western household. The woman who must pass by the house twice a day because of her job remains trapped in a constant state of anxiety and distress as the dog fixates upon her with menacing stares and incessant barking. She attributed the dog’s hostile behaviours to her innate feminine presence and the scent of fear radiated from her body. Subsequently, she resolves to approach the dog’s owners in a bid to foster familiarity with the dog and calm down the tensions. However, she was faced with a rude disregard from the elderly Westerner couple, indicative of their refusal to acknowledge her plight, her request, and her identity. The climax of the story reveals that the conflict with the Other will not be resolved easily and clarifies how, similar to its human owners, the represented dog functions as an instrument of imperialist and patriarchal ideology, wherein the existential agency of the Other is not only overlooked but actively rejected. Predominantly focalizing on the female protagonist’s perspective and her recurrently distressing encounters with the vicious dog, the narrative serves as a depiction of the shared oppression experienced by both the immigrant figure and the dog under the oppression of a forced domination, parallel to the hegemonic aspirations inherent within imperialistic endeavours. Therefore, my study posits that Coetzee’s short story serves as a convincing critique of a domination-seeking cultural discourse that manifests itself as the desire to subordinate women and non-human nature. Key Words: Coetzee, Dog, feminism, other, postcolonialism