Waiting for the Barbarians

Big Picture, Small Picture: Context for J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians

Big Picture, Small Picture: Context for J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians

ByDoug Cornett

On October 26, South African author J.M. Coetzee’s novel Waiting for the Barbarians is published. The unnamed narrator, an imperial magistrate stationed in a colonial settlement on the outskirts of the unspecified “Empire,” enjoys the languorous ease of his privileged position.