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Empire:Writing, History and Torture in waiting for Barbarian by ,waiting for barbarian J.m. coetzee
- 1. Empire: writing, History and Torture in Waiting for Barbarian Name -: Parmar Milankumar Roll no. -: 14 Enrollment no. -: Pg14101026 Course no. -: African Literature Email -: [email protected] Submitted to -: Department of English Smt.S.B. Gardi M.K.B. University
- 2. Introduction .J.M.Coetzee, Nobel Prize in literature 2003. ‘Waiting for barbarian’ 1980 Its philosophical depth – stylistic brilliance put him as rival of Kafka and Beckett. …is one of the most important voices in post colonial literature. The title of the novel is borrowed from C.P. Cavafy’s poem with the same title. It is dramatization of unnamed empire, without historical or geographical setting.
- 3. ‘Waiting for Barbarian’ An allegorical tale Metaphysical ground Philosophical landscape in which he presented the historical controversies and political disputes of his own country. It is dramatization of the moral dilemmas and political paradox of all imperial enterprises. It raises question against…. Arbitrary distinction between civilized and Barbarian Historical distinction with element of force and compulsion And the discrimination that has no moral basis.
- 4. Empire “an aggregate of nations of people ruled by emperor or other powerful sovereign or government usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom, as the former British empire, Norwegian empire, Byzantine empire or Roman empire.” Empire and colonialism are used t refer to relationships between powerful state or society verses a less powerful. Empire- Unnamed Town- Unnamed Civilized Barbarian Literate Illiterate Magistrate representative of empire Normadic, fisher folk, Barbarian people
- 5. Empire: Writing The empire of Cavafy’s poem is marked and bounded by its laws, or to be more precisely by its writing. Empire’s gift for Barbarian- Engraved scroll- Script of empire- record of history. In waiting for Barbarian Imperial magistrate envision apocalyptic end of the empire by barbarians “No one can accept that an imperial army has been annihilated by men with bows and arrows and rusty guns, who live in tents that never wash and can not read or write.”(143) Both the poem and novel suggests that the fundamental distinction between civilization and barbarism is that between lettered and unlettered.
- 6. Barbarians are the people… Who have no use of writing Therefore have no respect for No knowledge of the history of empire ‘On the outskirt of the imperial settlement magistrate found ancient wooden slips painted foreign characters’ It suggests that Barbarians formerly possessed and subsequently lost thee technology of writing. Civilization- writing is fundamental- western concept of history- articulated by Hegel. For him, there can be no history in meaningful and progressive sense, without written record.
- 7. Empire: History Potentials of history in Magistrate’s view Civilized standard of behavior Support and circumscribed by the rules of law- for autonomy and authority. Laws are necessary to check brutality and injustice of both barbarian and that of empire. Colonel Joll and officer Mandel embody worst barbarity in this empire. Their methods of interrogation and physical torture are unlawful. Magistrate-Victim- understood power and effectiveness of Bureau-of empire. Laws does not delimit the use of power Power ultimately defines the meaning of the Law. “those who do the writing make history, what amounts to same thing, those who makes history are the only ones in the position to write”
- 8. Empire: Torture The first person narrative- does not and can not represent the barbarian people in their own voice. Fisher folk and Nomadic herdsmen remains example of other. The Barbarian other generally appears in the novel the blank slip onto which empire engraves itself. The empire gives itself form by writing on its subjects Gruesome example of this writing can be read on the body of the barbarian woman… “Her scar, the marks on her eyelids, ankles and buttocks, as a result of Joll’s interrogation. “until the marks on this girl’s body are not deciphered and understood I can not let her go”- Magistrate.
- 9. The power and the skill of the empire, its art, lies in its capacity to generate and to then interpret its own sign. Horrific nature of activities of Joll and Mandel “First I get lie, you see- This is what happens, First lies then pressure, then more lies, than more pressure, then the break, then more pressure, then the truth. That is how you get the truth(120). Coetzee provides terrifying “nature of the- the Writing- Torture- and the execution of the law” “Mandel seizes a piece of charcoal to inscribe on the naked backs in bold letters the word ENEMY”(105). “He is calling his Barbarian Friends.. That is Barbarian Language you hear” – while Torturing to Magistrate. The empire produce its own conventional truth through its power to inscribe