Torture and the Novel: J. M. Coetzee's "Waiting for the Barbarians"

Abstract

One of most horrifying realities of twentieth century is widespread existence of state-approved torture. Amnesty International cites allegations that took place in ninety-eight countries in 1984 and estimates that in 1980s more than one-third of world's governments are responsible for torturing prisoners. existence of in modern world raises difficult questions for writers, particularly those from South American and African countries. Should authors depict in their work, and if they do, how should they portray this incomprehensible act? One writer who has wrestled with these issues is J. M. Coetzee, a South African novelist, linguist, and critic. His fiction represents a working out of some tentative strategies for novelist confronted with question of torture. Writing in January 12, 1986, New York Times Book Review, Coetzee admits that torture has exerted a dark fascination on himself and many other South African authors (13). But writer who depicts the dark chamber faces two moral dilemmas, according to Coetzee. First, he or she must find a middle way between ignoring obscenities performed by state, on one hand, and producing representations of those obscenities, on other. Coetzee objects to realistic depiction of in fiction because he thinks that novelist participates vicariously in atrocities, validates acts of torture, assists state in terrorizing and paralyzing people by showing its oppressive methods in detail. Yet these acts must not be hidden either. Coetzee suggests, The true challenge is how not to play game by rules of state, how to establish one's own authority, how to imagine and death on one's own terms (13).