A Painful Struggle:A Study Of The Ethical Predicaments In Coetzee’s Waiting For The Barbarians

Coetzee is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003 and the first writer who has twice won the highest prize of British literature,the Booker Prize.His novels are always set in South Africa which has experienced colonialism and apartheid,and reflect the overall living conditions of human beings through examining the history of South Africa and the realistic situation in South Africa.Waiting for the Barbarians is his first work to gain international reputation.Although it was published in 1980,the ethical issues reflected in the novel are not out of date.Based on the theory of ethical literary criticism and the methods of qualitative analysis and close reading,this thesis analyzes the complicated ethical predicaments faced by the protagonist and the reasons for his painful struggle,and reveals Coetzee’s ethical thoughts.This thesis consists of five chapters altogether.Chapter one comprises the research background,objectives,and significance of this thesis.Chapter two includes the overview of pertinent domestic and international studies on Waiting for the Barbarians.Chapter three introduces the development of ethical literary criticism and the main contents of it.Chapter four demonstrates the characteristics of the ethical environment that the protagonist falls into by analyzing the main characters’ behaviors and the relations among them in the novel,and discloses the impact of the ethical environment on the protagonist: the confusion in terms of his ethical identities and the dilemma concerning his ethical choices.Chapter five summarizes the thesis,exposes limitations,and offers suggestions.The findings show that by depicting the conflicts in the old magistrate’s identities and choices caused by socially imposed rules,Coetzee urges us to pay regard to the oppression and emptiness that haunt the protagonist,and the degradation of the society he is exposed to.Coetzee shows his deep concern for the progress of South African civilization and expresses his wish to build an ethical order based on equality,harmony,and mutual love.