The Establishment And Disintegration Of The White Myth In South Africa

Waiting for the Barbarians and Disgrace written by South African writer—J.M.Coetzee are two allegorical novels. The former narrates a story that an invented empire will launch a war against the nomads. This novel has got a universal significance. It is also an allegory of the establishment of the White Myth in South Africa. Almost twenty years later, the novel Disgrace was published and won the Nobel Prize of 2003 which seems to depict the Eros, ethic or the black's revenge on the white. Actually this novel's background was on the new South Africa of post apartheid when the identity of the white as a master was missing, the black's subjective identity was regained and the White Myth in South Africa began to be disintegrated. Therefore this novel contains the course of the disintegration of the White Myth in South Africa. In terms of the structure and theme, these two novels contrast mutually and within which a great tension is formed. This thesis engages in the research of comparison, which can make the entire course from the establishment to disintegration of the White Myth in South Africa clear. Meanwhile this kind of study can extend its significance, and further provide help for those researchers on Coetzee.From the perspective of post colonialism, this thesis employs the identity theory in Said's Orientalism to probe into these two novels. The first chapter explores the motivation and the course of the establishment of the White Myth. Since Plato, the westerners have the tradition of logo centrism. They consider the Occident is superior to the Orient and usually pursue narcissism, which plays a role to construct self identity. Meanwhile it is also necessary for "the other" to be constructed in this course because "the other" is a foil of self. No matter self or "the other", they are all imaginary. To make their identities come true, it is "bound up with the position of power and powerlessness" (Said 1995:332).This course of colonization is exposed in Waiting for the Barbarians obviously. The colonizer uses knowledge, hegemonic discourse and violence to set their self identity and "the other" identity. The second chapter researches the disintegration of the White Myth. Lurie and Lucy, the representatives of the white, begin to recognize their own identities of colonizers are missing, the western civilization begins to be degenerated and they have to be silenced by the changed social reality of South Africa. Meanwhile, Petrus, the representative of the black, begins to move steadily into the center and gets his subjectivity. Therefore, the White Myth begins to be disintegrated. The third chapter probes into dilemma of South Africa during or after the disintegration of the White Myth, and tries to find out the reasons and seeks the practical solution. That is to get rid of the white/black opposition in root, pursue equal communication and strive for harmonious coexistence.