DISCURSIVE ANARCHISM IN J. M. COETZEE'S WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS
Issued Date
2022-09-01
Resource Type
eISSN
26300079
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85148669903
Journal Title
Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Studies
Volume
22
Issue
3
Start Page
601
End Page
611
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Studies Vol.22 No.3 (2022) , 601-611
Suggested Citation
Pan-Iam M. DISCURSIVE ANARCHISM IN J. M. COETZEE'S WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS. Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Studies Vol.22 No.3 (2022) , 601-611. 611. doi:10.14456/hasss.2022.52 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/83431
Title
DISCURSIVE ANARCHISM IN J. M. COETZEE'S WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS
Author(s)
Author's Affiliation
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
Drawing on Walter Benjamin's concept of allegory, and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's theoretical framework of anarchism, this paper explores J. M. Coetzee's discursive practices in Waiting for the Barbarians with particular attention to the textual perception and employment of allegory as language and language as allegory. My argument is formed by the analyses offered by Derek Attridge in J. M. Coetzee & The Ethics of Reading (2004), and Jan Wilm in The Slow Philosophy of J. M. Coetzee (2016). I shall argue that Coetzee's practice of language and representation envisions an aesthetic articulation of discursive anarchism, a term which is taken to describe a kind of wild dispersing or disordering of order/language. A close examination of the novel's pointed employment of the term “allegory” including its textual representation both in form and concept will be presented in the first section to highlight allegory as an art of fragmentation. The discussion in the following sections will revolve around the analyses of dream sequences, which shall expand Coetzee's spatial and political discursivity. The exploration of language and discursive anarchism will also be discussed to reinforce the claim that Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel of discursive fragmentation and anarchism.