Wandering in the Wilderness of Words: Coetzee’s Magistrate Adrift in Deconstruction
Subject Areas : Literary Studies
Abdolhamid Haery
1
,
Fatemeh Pourjafari
2
1 - PhD Candidate, Department of English Language, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran
2 - Department of English Language and Literature, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran
Keywords: torture, deconstruction, discourse, storytelling,
Abstract :
This paper examines how J. M. Coetzee addresses the challenges of depicting torture in his novel Waiting for the Barbarians. Coetzee was grappling with how to represent state violence and oppression without trivializing or validating such acts. The novel tells the story of the Magistrate in a frontier town as the Colonel arrives to interrogate and torture prisoners. Through witnessing the torture, the Magistrate begins to question his complicity in the Empire’s crimes. Coetzee uses ambiguity and symbolism to criticize oppressive systems without glorifying torturers. The paper analyzes how the novel engages with postmodern literary theories, particularly deconstruction. Scenes where the Magistrate struggles to articulate his experiences represent the limits of language according to deconstructionist thinkers like Derrida. Coetzee also depicts the torturers in an intentionally unclear way to avoid justifying their actions while still acknowledging state violence. Ultimately, through undergoing his own imprisonment and torture, the Magistrate comes to realize his own moral failings in quietly accepting oppression. This reveals universal human tendencies towards complicity. By removing clear moral distinctions and emphasizing shared culpability, Coetzee addresses the ethical issues of portraying torture without trivializing harm or sympathizing with perpetrators. The novel underscores the paradox that oppression imparts a duty to speak out yet language can never fully convey lived experiences of violence.
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