"But that will not be my way" : locating counter-hegemonic energy in waiting for the barbarians and foe.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the texts Waiting for the Barbarians and Foe by John Maxwell Coetzee as literary platforms for the discourse of an ongoing political struggle filled with counter-hegemonic drive. The subject of political resistance in these texts has been broached and discussed in many critical discourses. Much of the discussion revolves around the esoteric and enigmatic character of the marginalized, and with attention principally on the dominant leads, tend to identify with the dominant standpoint of the narrators and neglect features of resistance in the marginalized subjects. There are also critical discourses, though to a lesser extent, that attend to the subject of counter-discourse with a caution against romanticizing resistance. My dissertation will build upon these insightful works and seek to present an alternative viewpoint, and at certain points, provide a different angle from which to approach the subject of resistance more comprehensively. Resistance, in Coetzee’s writing, is not a monolithic entity that is based on a deterministic, reductionistic paradigm; it takes on subtle and intricate forms that require further exploration. Focusing on silence, speech and writing, I will discuss how they emerge as reactive energy and counter-hegemonic responses. The characters rearticulate power relations and demonstrate that hegemony is a process that is subject to challenge by those it seeks to dominate, requires periodic revision and is subject to a process of transformation over time.