Interpretation Of Coetzee's Novel "barbarians.

John Maxwell Coetzee (1940-) is a marvelous writer who offers striking insight intohegemonic discourse, humanity and colonial history. As a descendant of Dutch settlers inSouth Africa, his introspection, especially about colonial history and apartheid, is valuable.Coetzee rethinks the relationship between black and white. He is well aware of colonists’cognitive violence and behavioral violence. He concerns about the social reality in thepost-colonial period. This article focuses on Coetzee’s reflection of history in the analysis of“barbarians” in his novels.The introduction is review of literature criticism and studies on Coetzee and hiscreation.ChapterⅠdebates the fallacious construction of “barbarians”. Coetzee shows hisreflection on colonists’ cognitive violence. Section One introduces that “barbarians”, madeup by the empire in Waiting for the Barbarians, is racial stereotype. The narrative has beenquestioned all the time in the novel. Section Two is about the magistrate fails to read thebody of the tortured barbarian girl. The empire’s description of "barbarians" is questioned.The girl keeps silence to fight against the empire. Section Three figures out that the empirecreates “barbarians” as “the other” to achieve the savage colonial rule. This colonialdiscourse stands for colonists’ cognitive violence.ChapterⅡis about Coetzee’s description of colonial violence. In this chapter, text,combined with history and the author’s experience, reveals the essence of so-called“civilization” and “barbarian”. The first section mainly describes the violence caused by“civilization” in South Africa in Age of Iron. The second quarter reflets Elizabeth Currensuffers from the malignancy. Violence creats serious political and social unrest throughoutthe country. In order to be confronted with the colonial history, she suffers from disgrace, aswell as Coetzee. Third Section is mainly about history of colony and apartheid in SouthAfrica. Colonized had been treated brutally for a long time.“Civilization” and”barbarian”seems to be reversed. ChapterⅢ makes a point that on account of colonial history, racial issues still exist inSouth Africa. Section One summarizes the conflicts between black and white in Disgrace inthe post-colonial era. Section Two shows us that in the long racial history, ethnocentrism hasbeen marked forever in colonists’ mind. Racial problems can’t be resolved by confession.The cognition of “barbarians” will never be changed. Section Three discusses that the racialhatred brings South Africa to the brink of violent disaster. The intense demands ofindependent and self-construction bothers the black. However, they have to be faced withthe dilemma of “strip” and”attachment”. As a result, South Africa gets into trouble of crimeand violence.The Conclusion is a summary of Coetzee’s reflection of colonial history and theconstruction of the “barbarians”. There is a great wealth of variety in Coetzee’s works,therefore, innumerable interpretation should be given.