This document provides a summary of the novel "Waiting for Barbarians" by J.M. Coetzee. It discusses the main themes of irony explored in the novel, including the irony of the concept of barbarians, the magistrate's desire for peace, his eventual fate, and perceived charity. It also analyzes symbols like the magistrate's recurring dream and the ideas of blindness represented by Colonel Joll's sunglasses and the barbarian girl's damaged eyes.

1. Prepared and presented by Richa Pandya
Paper – 14 The African Literature
Semester - 4
Roll no - 26
Enrolment no -2069108420190030
Email id : richapandya163@gmail.com
S.B.Gardi Department of English
Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji University
IRONY AND SYMBOL IN WAITING FOR
BARBARIANS

2. ABOUT THE NOVEL
• Waiting for Barbarians is Novel written by “ J. M. COETZEE”.
• Published in 1980.
• The novel was chosen by Penguin for its series “GREAT BOOK
OF THE 20TH CENTIRY” .
• The novel won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and
Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for fiction
• Coetzee took the title from the poem “Waiting for the
Barbarians” by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy.

3. ABOUT AUTHOR
• John Maxwell Coetzee is a South African.
• Born in 9th November 1940.
• He is a novelist, essayist, linguist and translator.
• He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated author in the
English Language.
• His Notable Awards : Booker Prize(1983)
Prix Femina etranger (1985)
The Irish Times International Fiction Prize(1995)
Booker Prize(1999)
Noble Prize in Literature(2003)

4. IRONY IN THE WAITING FOR BARBARIANS
• The Irony of the Concept of the Barbarians
• The Irony of Wanting peace
• The Irony of the Magistrate’s destiny
• The Irony of the Magistrate’s Charity

5. THE IRONY OF THE CONCEPT OF THE
BARBARIANS
• The engine of the narrative is built on the ironic projection that
the nomads are the Barbarians.
• While in fact the empire shows itself to be brutally violent,
indeed barbaric precisely in its treatment of its enemy, “ the
barbarians”.
• The idea of an attack by the imminent attack by the barbarians
is put forth by the Empire to justify its own attacks, compounding
this central irony.
• The concept of the barbarian

6. THE IRONY OF WANTING
• The magistrate expresses his desire for “a quiet life in quiet
times”, and is upset when Joll and the Third Bureau brings their
torturous methods to his outpost.
• The magistrate’s desire to remain ignorant of the horrors of his
Empire, reflects a more universal irony that applies to those who
benefit from liberal privileges.

7. THE IRONY OF THE MAGISTRATE’S DESTINY
• There’s notable irony in the magistrate’s trajectory from a
responsible official in service of the empire to a stripped and
tortured victim of the empire.
• In the course of the narrative, the magistrate does not merely
learn how his empire work in theory.
• It’s ironic that the man who wanted to live out his days in peace
is forced to understand, in the most visceral terms, the cost of
such peace.

8. THE IRONY OF THE MAGISTRATE’S CHARITY
• The magistrate's charity for the nomad woman contains complex
irony.
• While the woman has been tortured, blinded and displaced by
his Empire, he is aware only of his own supposed generosity.
• The women isn’t in fact in his home because of his home
because of his benevolence.
• He’s obsessed and fascinated by her and he wants to learn
about her.
• His charity is in fact his greed, his desire to gain some
mysterious knowledge from her.

9. SYMBOLS
• Magistrate’s Dream
• Blindness and Joll’s sunglasses

10. MAGISTRATE’S DREAM
• Throughout the novel, the magistrate's has a recurring dream in
which he approaches a group of children building a castle out of
show.
• The dream reveals how the magistrate is plagued by an
ambivalent desire for an ambiguous object, exploring more
broadly the relationship between civilized humanity and
monstrousness.
• At once desiring and loving the barbarian girl somewhat
innocently, the magistrate also has the urge to possess her.

11. BLINDNESS AND JOLL’S SUNGLASSES
• The idea of blindness is expressed both by Colonel Joll’s
sunglasses and the barbarian girl’s damaged eyes.
• In the case of Colonel Joll, his sunglasses ironically suggest his
willingness to put blinder’s corruption and the harmlessness of
the nomadic people.
• In the case of barbarian girl, whose blindness was caused by
joll’s torture tactics her lack of sight actually illuminates the truth
of the magistrate’s somewhat perverted way of the relating to
her.

12. WORK CITED
• Iffland, William. litcharts. 31 3 2017. web. 22 2 2020.
<https://www.litcharts.com/lit/waiting-for-the-
barbarians/symbols>.
• Lynch, Molly. GradeSaver. 29 3 2017. 22 2 2020.
<https://www.gradesaver.com/waiting-for-the-barbarians/study-
guide/irony#>.