Searching for Frontiers of Civilization: J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for Barbarians

BożenaKucała Searching for Frontiers of Civilization: J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for Barbarians Following the titular threat of approaching barbarity the article explores the ambiguous concept of the Empire perceived in terms of a mental construct of its inhabitants located in a metaphorical space beyond history and beyond time. Futile attempts to mobilize the "civilised" Imperial identity seen as the barbarians' glorious Other demonstrate however the provisionality of all identity-related definitions based on binary oppositions, pointing to the devastating consequences such political/discursive strategy may bring about. This particular dichotomy, metaphorically located against the background of a symbolic journey into borderland of civilised culture, reveals nevertheless a disturbing truth; the real threat for the Empire's unity lies not in the mysterious and desolate land supposedly occupied by the barbarians, but in the Empire itself, in its spiritual emptiness and its inability to establish its own borders in a way other than that of a negative confrontation.BożenaKucała Searching for Frontiers of Civilization: J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for Barbarians Following the titular threat of approaching barbarity the article explores the ambiguous concept of the Empire perceived in terms of a mental construct of its inhabitants located in a metaphorical space beyond history and beyond time. Futile attempts to mobilize the "civilised" Imperial identity seen as the barbarians' glorious Other demonstrate however the provisionality of all identity-related definitions based on binary oppositions, pointing to the devastating consequences such political/discursive strategy may bring about. This particular dichotomy, metaphorically located against the background of a symbolic journey into borderland of civilised culture, reveals nevertheless a disturbing truth; the real threat for the Empire's unity lies not in the mysterious and desolate land supposedly occupied by the barbarians, but in the Empire itself, in its spiritual emptiness and its inability to establish its own borders in a way other than that of a negative confrontation