Waiting for the Barbarians

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Waiting for the Barbarians
First edition cover
Author	J.M. Coetzee
Country	South Africa
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Secker & Warburg
Publication date	27 October 1980
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	156 pp (hardback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-436-10295-1 (hardback edition)
OCLC Number	7742021
Dewey Decimal	823 19
LC Classification	PR9369.3.C58 W3 1980

Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel by the South African-born author J. M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. The novel was published in 1980 and is regarded as one of Coetzee's finest pieces of writing.^{[citation needed]} It was chosen by Penguin for its series Great Books of the 20th Century and won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for fiction. American composer Philip Glass has also written an opera of the same name based on the book which premiered in September 2005 in Erfurt, Germany.

Explanation of the novel's title

Coetzee took the title from the poem "Waiting for the Barbarians" by Greek-Egyptian poet Constantine P. Cavafy.^[1][2] It may also be an allusion to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Inspiration from Dino Buzzati's novel The Tartar Steppe is also evident, both for the title and the plot.

Plot summary

The story is set in small frontier town of a nameless empire. The town's magistrate is the story's protagonist and narrator. His rather peaceful existence on the frontier comes to an end with the arrival of some special forces of the Empire, led by a sinister Colonel Joll. There are rumours that the barbarians are preparing an attack on the Empire, and so Colonel Joll and his men conduct an expedition into the land beyond the frontier. They capture a number of "barbarians," bring them back to town, torture them, kill some of them, and leave for the capital in order to prepare a larger campaign against the barbarians. In the meantime, the Magistrate becomes involved with a "barbarian girl" who was left behind crippled and blinded by the torturers. Eventually, he decides to take her back to her people. After a life-threatening trip through the barren land he succeeds in his objective and returns to his town. Shortly thereafter, the Empire's forces return and the Magistrate's own plight begins.

Symbolism

Coetzee is generally considered to be a postcolonial and postmodern writer who utilizes the nameless empire as an allegory. The magistrate is a figure searching for meaning on the outskirts of an unjust, cruel empire. His love for the barbarian girl is at once paternalistic, fetishistic and misguided. Ultimately, the magistrate learns he is too entrenched within his imperial breeding to make sense of the frontier (the plight of his own people and the barbarians).

Awards and nominations

After Coetzee won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003, Waiting for the Barbarians was chosen by Penguin Books for its series "Great Books of the 20th Century". The Nobel Prize committee called Waiting for the Barbarians "a political thriller in the tradition of Joseph Conrad, in which the idealist’s naivete opens the gates to horror".^{[citation needed]}

Adaptations

The opera by Philip Glass is based on Coetzee's book and Christopher Hampton's libretto adapts the story faithfully. The opera premiered on September 10, 2005, at the Theater of Erfurt, Germany, under the direction of Guy Montavon. The lead role of the Magistrate was sung by British baritone Richard Salter, Colonel Joll by American baritone Eugene Perry, who has starred in a number of Glass operas, and the barbarian girl by Elvira Soukop. The musical director of the premiere was Dennis Russell Davies. As Glass told journalists and the Erfurt audience at a matinée, he sees scary parallels between the opera's story and the Iraq War: a military campaign, scenes of torture, talk about threats to the Empire's peace and safety, but no proof. The Austin Lyric Opera performed the American premiere of Waiting for the Barbarians on January 19, 2007, conducted by Richard Buckley and under the direction of Guy Montavon, who was joined again by Richard Salter and Eugene Perry as the Magistrate and Colonel Joll, respectively, and mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala[1] as the Barbarian Girl.

Notes

External links

• ISBN 0-09-946593-0 (UK paperback, Virago)
• Cavafy's poem "Waiting for the Barbarians"

v • d • e Works by J. M. Coetzee Novels Dusklands (1974) · In the Heart of the Country (1977) · Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) · Life & Times of Michael K (1983) · Foe (1986) · Age of Iron (1990) · The Master of Petersburg (1994) · Disgrace (1999) · Elizabeth Costello (2003) · Slow Man (2005) · Diary of a Bad Year (2007) Memoirs Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life (1997) · Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II (2002)  · Summertime (2009) Essay collections White Writing: On the Culture of Letters in South Africa (1988) · Doubling the Point: Essays and Interviews (1992) · Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship (1996) · The Lives of Animals (1999) · Stranger Shores: Literary Essays, 1986–1999 (2001) · Inner Workings: Literary Essays, 2000-2005 (2007) Film adaptations Dust (1985) · The Lives of Animals (2002) · Disgrace (2008)