The document analyzes the theme of identity crisis in J.M. Coetzee's novel 'Waiting for the Barbarians,' highlighting the influence of Cavafy's poem and Buzzati's work. It examines how characters like Colonel Joll and the barbarian girl symbolize the effects of colonization on identity, while the magistrate represents the tension between power and identity within the empire. The conclusion emphasizes that without clear identities, the characters' struggles reflect broader historical problematizations.

1. African Literature
Name: Prinjal Shiyal
E-mail ID: prinjal00123@gmail.com
Topic: Identity Crisis in “Waiting For the
Barbarians
Submitted to: Department of English
(MKBU)

2. Title of the
novel.
● John Maxwell Coetzee took
the title from the poem
“Waiting for the Barbarians”
by Greek poet Constantine P.
Cavafy.
● Coetzee’s novel has been
deeply influenced by Italian
writer Dino Buzzati’s novel
“The Tartar Steppe.”

3. Novel’s characters & concept of
identity:
● Title itself represents the identity without perfection.
● Origin, Identity and Cultural are more effective here.
● Decolonized people developed a post colonial identity
that is based on cultural interactions between different
identities.
● Political power and European power for common people.
● Mainly identity based on some aspects like, national and
ethnic as well as gender and class.

4. Colonel Joll
● Colonel Joll represents the
active violence of
colonization.
“Prisoners are prisoners” he
says.

5. Identity Crisis in the Waiting for the Barbarians
The Barbarian girl
● She is first victim for Colonel Joll and
she comes from a nomadic fishing tribe
area.
● She represents the nation and the subject
of colonization.
● The existence of barbarian girl is
problematic without identity.
● Her deformed & tortured body
represents the ideology of imperialism
and identity of the Barbarians.
● The Black girl represents the “Other”.
● The ‘Orientalism’ is helpful for getting
the meaning of other.

6. Continue...
● As a black African girl.
● As a woman in the patriarchal society.
● She is without identity, Voice & Power.
● Black v/s. White identity
● As a symbol of barbarians and nation.
● Sexual relationship between her and Magistrate.
● Her choices for life without identity.

7. The Magistrate
● ‘The Magistrate’ name is
itself problematic because,
there are no particular
identity without the empire.
● At the beginning of the
novel, the Magistrate works
for the empire, enforcing
laws without question.
● The system pushes every
identity.

8. Continue...
● The Magistrate with power and without
power.
● His identity connected with the empire.
● Joll equates him with a woman by
hanging him in a tree with women's
clothes. It shows the condition of
women's existence is nothing
compared to men and political power.

9. Conclusion
● Somehow identity shows repossessions of
history but, without identities characters are
indicate problematizations of history.

10. Works cited
J.M.Coetzee. Waiting for the Barbarians. 1980.
Zala, Heenaba. Waiting for the barberians. 28 01 2016. 23 02 2020
<https://www.slideshare.net/heenabazala3/waiting-for-the-barbarians>.