Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel by South African writer J.M. Coetzee. Story of the book is narrated in the First person by unnamed magistrate of small colonial town that exist as the territorial frontier of the empire. The Magistrate’s rather peaceful existence comes to an end with the Empire’s declaration of a State of emergency and with the Deployment of the 3rdBureau Special force of the empire due to rumors that the area’s residential people who called according to them ‘’ barbarians’’ by the colonists might be preparing to attack the town so Sinister Colonel Joll who was like leader and so Third Bureau captures some Barbarians, then they brings them back to town and they torture them, kills some of them and then leaves for the capital in order to prepare a large campaign.
At that time the Magistrate questioned the legitimacy of imperialism and he personally nurses a barbarian girls. She was left crippled and partly blinded by the Third Bureau’s torture. Magistrate has an intimate although uncertain relation ship with that barbarian girl. Then Magistrate decides to take that girl to her people. After a dangerous trip through the barren land, during which they have sex, and finally he succeed in returning to her then he finally asking her to stay with him and he returned to his own town. Then other soldier comes to know about him and they punished him and story goes on.
At that time the Magistrate questioned the legitimacy of imperialism and he personally nurses a barbarian girls. She was left crippled and partly blinded by the Third Bureau’s torture. Magistrate has an intimate although uncertain relation ship with that barbarian girl. Then Magistrate decides to take that girl to her people. After a dangerous trip through the barren land, during which they have sex, and finally he succeed in returning to her then he finally asking her to stay with him and he returned to his own town. Then other soldier comes to know about him and they punished him and story goes on
At that time the Magistrate questioned the legitimacy of imperialism and he personally nurses a barbarian girls. She was left crippled and partly blinded by the Third Bureau’s torture. Magistrate has an intimate although uncertain relation ship with that barbarian girl. Then Magistrate decides to take that girl to her people. After a dangerous trip through the barren land, during which they have sex, and finally he succeed in returning to her then he finally asking her to stay with him and he returned to his own town. Then other soldier comes to know about him and they punished him and story goes on
Coetzee intentionally used the word violence because it has its own importance the crucial question is about the meaning of violence for an individual, that is how an individual person come to understand violence on one’s own terms. The evolution of Coetzee’s treatment of violence in his works may be described as progression from his examination of the perpetrators and tortures to his concentration on the oppressed with their suffering and resistance to his projection of meaningful relations based on ethical values. We can say about Coetzee that he exposes himself in front of the readers, betrays himself and becomes utterly vulnerable.
No comments:
Post a Comment