Waiting For The Barbarians Essay

The relation of power with special emphasis laid upon the role of women in the society is a never- ending debate. While some authors focussed on the strengths of women by vitalising their role with the protagonist in their novels, some covered the pain and agony faced by women at the hands of brutal men. J. M. Coetzee is definite in sharing the realities of post-war torment on women population through serious character depictions in his novels. Post-colonialism is the central theme in the works of J.M. Coetzee, and every work of the controversial author reveals some point of pain accepted by meek women. ‘Disgrace’ and ’Waiting for the Barbarians’ are two famous novels of J. M. Coetzee which speaks about the hardships of the protagonists during the time of war. It is significant to note that the author has spoken so clearly the issues faced by women in both the novels with the sense of powerlessness that remains within the feminine population. Though many other renowned works of J. M. Coetzee explain the explicit and implicit effects of war and colonialism on women, the

M. Coetzee published in the year 1980. The priceless publication received several awards such as the Geoffrey Faber Award, James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and CNA Literary Prize. The title is referred to the poem of Constantine P. Cavafy, Waiting for the Barbarians. The story of the never arriving barbarians is the central theme of the novel and J. M. Coetzee implicitly represents the situation of apartheid in any part of the world without accounting the novel with South Africa. J. M. Coetzee carefully addresses the situation of oppression without naming the protagonist or the geographical location where the entire story is set. Several issues of oppression with special emphasis on the two different poles: the coloniser and the colonised, the indigenous and the other, the tormentor and the tormented were addressed in the novel (Diler and Emir