Waiting for the Barbarians and Diary of a Bad Year

Within J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians, the author employs an allegorical style to serve as a moral and cultural response to colonialism and the evils of public torture. While the argument has been made that this novel represents a specific criticism of South African political structures, Coetzee's intentions were much broader and his novel is a critique of colonialism that is analogous to America's post 9/11 narrative. Coetzee furthers his analysis of torture in his more recent novel, Diary of a Bad Year, and explores how Americans should respond to the shame and the dishonor of the torture involved in the “war on terror.” The rhetoric of exception within both books displace the ordinary rule of law to justify the actions of torture and the empire or country's colonial goals to vanquish the “barbarians” or “terrorists”. The narratives also question whether exceptional threats, like that of the “barbarians,” or “terrorists” call for exceptional responses.

Coetzee poses important questions. Is there a collective shame we should feel about torture we see, regardless of it's historical setting? What would a feeling of responsibility or guilt accomplish? In Waiting for the Barbarians we can acknowledge how Coetzee's depiction of torture and his narrative choices are analogous to the post 9/11 narrative put forth by the Bush Administration. Diary of a Bad Year goes further, sets the time period and actors, and asks the reader how he/she should feel about torture, shame, and guilt. Both novels act as a lesson to all

2

as a critique of American Imperialism and implore the reader to feel a responsibility or guilt associated with public torture. Coetzee's first person narrative and broad dissociation ...

... middle of paper ...

...ton Books, 2010. 125-135. Print.

Lenta, Patrick. “Waiting for the Barbarians after September 11.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing

42.1.(2006): 71-83. Print.

McClintock, Anne. "Paranoid Empire: Specters from Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib." Small Axe 13.1 (2009): 50-74. Project MUSE. Web. 21 Jan. 2011.

McMahan, Jeff. “Torture and Collective Shame.” J.M. Coetzee and Ethics: Philosophical

Perspectives on Literature. Ed. Anton Leist, Peter Singer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 89-105. Print.

Spencer, Robert. “J. M. Coetzee and Colonial Violence.” Interventions: International Journal of

Postcolonial Studies 10.2 (2008): 173-187. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 12 Jan. 2011.

United States, Cong. Authorization for Use of Military Force, Pub. L. Na. Washington: GPO, 2001. 107-40 Print.