Waiting for the Barbarians
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| Author | J.M. Coetzee |
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| Country | South Africa |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Secker & Warburg |
| Released | 27 October 1980 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 156 p. (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-436-10295-1 (hardback edition) |
Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel by the South African 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. It was chosen by Penguin for their series "Great Books of the 20th Century". U.S. composer Philip Glass has also written an opera based on the book, carrying the same title, which premiered in September 2005 in Erfurt, Germany.
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[edit] Title
Coetzee took his title from a poem by Alexandrian poet C.P. Cavafy.
[edit] Plot summary
The story is set in a small frontier town of a nameless empire. The town's magistrate is the story's main 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. That is why 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 returns to his village. Shortly thereafter, the Empire's forces return and the Magistrate's own plight begins.
[edit] Awards and nominations
After Coetzee won of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003, Waiting for the Barbarians was chosen by Penguin Books for their 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". Indeed, Coetzee's dramatic plot and sparse prose take the reader into another heart of darkness, a darkness without a name, without a place and out of time.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical 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 US 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 war in Iraq: a military campaign, scenes of torture, talk about threats to the Empire's peace and safety, but no proof.
[edit] External links
- ISBN 0-09-946593-0 (UK paperback, Virago)
- Cavafy's poem "Waiting for the Barbarians"
| John Maxwell 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) |
| Essays |
| 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) |
| Autobiographical works |
| Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life (1997) • Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II (2002) |
