Literary review: Waiting for the Barbarians

Elective: Censorship and Social Transformation

Professor Ksenia Robbe

Ruth-Marie Henckes

S1451502

Word Count: 1061

29/03/2015

Literary review: Waiting for the Barbarians – J.M. Coetzee

“‘Ah yes’, I say: ‘time for the black flower of civilization to bloom.’ He does not understand.” (p86)

Critical white South African readers during the 80s did understand, however, that the “black flower of civilization” was in full bloom during the apartheid era, even though many benefiting from the evil order seemed oblivious to its cruelty. A discourse of civilized whites and barbarian blacks was used to justify the inhumane oppression of black South Africans. Opposition was pointless as the established order was too solid and even whites had to tiptoe when commenting on the morality of the system. Nevertheless, Nobel Prize-winning J.M. Coetzee dared critiquing the system in his brilliant novel Waiting for the Barbarians in such a way that he could circumvent punishment or censorship and still convey the desperation of a situation where moral behaviour is considered insane and senselessness is the rule. In Coetzee’s universalized space he contemplates the human condition, the purpose of morality and the intrinsic other in a way that transcends South African borders.

Waiting for the Barbarians is written through the eyes of the magistrate. The magistrate is an administrator for a peripheral town of an empire. Life in the town is uneventful, which is exactly how the protagonist likes it, until one day Colonel Joll from the Capital of the Empire arrives. He has come to protect the frontier from a ruthless barbarian attack and spreads hatred, fear and violence in the town. The magistrate opposes Joll and the Empire, which causes him to be perceived as a barbarian-loving traitor. Locked up in a cell, he is reduced to bodily functions, through incessant humiliation and suffering. As he realizes he is alone in his opposition, he starts questioning his own agenda, his sanity and his morality. He wants to oppose the colonial situation, but fails to express anything substantial. As the magistrate is withering away in his cel, the town is restlessly waiting for the barbarians.

“Coetzee’s interest is directed mainly at situations where the distinction between right and wrong, while crystal clear, can be seen to serve no end” (Nobel Prize). This accurate observation of the Swedish Academy brilliantly summarizes the essence of Waiting for the Barbarians. Even though the magistrate opposes the regime and defends his moral judgement with his life, he achieves absolutely nothing and in the end nothing really changes either. As he is alone in his opposition, he even starts questioning his sanity and morality. The magistrate is caught between the empire and the barbarians, belonging to neither one. As he tries to oppose the system with the means of the system, he is destined to failure and stuck in no-man’s land.

The impossibility of opposing the established order remind the reader of South Africa. Nevertheless, the book contains no clear indications towards South Africa, but only indirect allusions. The magistrate’s anger about hate for barbarians, the intrinsic other, is one of such elements: “How do you eradicate contempt, especially when that contempt is founded on nothing more substantial than differences in table manners, variations in the structure of eyelid?” (p55) However plenty such allusions to apartheid are, Coetzee circumvents South Africa’s censorship through the creation of a universalized space. He has created this with the absence of elements of race and connections to any recognizable place. This also makes the novel more applicable to any other situation of repression, othering, discrimination or obscured morality.

A crucial element in the novel is the discourse of othering that was all too present in apartheid South Africa too. Even though the magistrate tries to oppose the oppressive order, he himself is stuck within the othering discourse and can therefore not effectively oppose the system as he is too entrenched in its discourse himself. Whilst critiquing the colonial situation, he subconsciously reproduces the colonial power balance through his attitude towards the barbarians and his relationship with a barbarian girl. This girl is the prototype of the subaltern, as she has no name, personality, voice, will, or emotions. The magistrate has a colonial relationship with the girl and continues viewing her as the intrinsic other who has no opinion or will of her own. When the magistrate later hears another girl speak about the girl, he is shocked to find out she did have emotions and ideas. Thus, there is no way the magistrate could effectively oppose the system, as he is stuck within its paradigm and discourse and tries to oppose it with the means of the system that were designed to defend it.

In 2003, the Nobel Prize in literature went to J.M. Coetzee, “who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider" (Nobel Prize). Such a price is well deserved, as Coetzee’s writing style is absorbing in an alienating yet enlightening way. Waiting for the Barbarians is not short of analytical and philosophical genius. The descriptive, yet mundane language make it easy to visualize the scenery, however absurd the combination of desert and snow may seem. The absurd is an important element in the novel, in the conception of reality of the magistrate as well as in the regular allusions to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. The dynamic is the only aspect of the novel I could possibly comment on negatively. The beginning is rather slow and uneventful, as is much of the period the magistrate spends in prison. However, the intriguing inner dialogue of the main character during these uneventful periods make up for this.

Waiting for the Barbarians is not just a novel about apartheid, but a compelling story that transcends time and space as it intriguingly contemplates morality, othering, oppression, human weakness and cruelty. Central to the novel is the senselessness of fighting evil when this will not change anything either way. Such senselessness is not unique in South Africa, but is experienced by people living in oppressive regimes all over the world, be it in Saudi Arabia, Eritrea or Singapore. Understanding such desperation is essential to understanding the functioning of such regimes and Coetzee’s novel brilliantly gives you a thorough understanding of what it means to be a rational and moral human being living in such a system. Therefore, Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel about topics that concern all of us. Thereupon, it is a highly enjoyable read that will give you vivid dreams of barbarians and nightmares of civilization.

Bibliography:

Coetzee, J. M. Waiting for the Barbarians. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1982. Print.

"The Nobel Prize in Literature 2003 to John Maxwell Coetzee - Press Release". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 29 Mar 2015.