Waiting For The Barbarians Essay

Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel which alters our idea of what a barbarian is by revealing that there is not much difference between those who are “civilized” and “uncivilized,” as we are shown a civilized society whose fear of a supposed attack from the “barbarians” is what justifies the members of the Empire's inhumane acts toward innocent natives. As the Magistrate attempts to speak for the natives, he shows control over them by taking away their voices and replacing them with his own thoughts representing his own motives. The idea of the voiceless oppressed comes from Spivak’s influential piece about the possibility of speaking for the subaltern, in which she criticizes poststructuralist thinkers Gilles Deleuze's and Michael Foucault's claims that we can express the experience of the Other; that is, we come to know a truth, if not the truth, about the Other. Spivak's essay refutes this theory by defending that the subaltern, in fact, cannot speak, but that does not mean that they cannot become literate if they so desire. …show more content…
Foucault articulates a validation of the oppressed as subject, the “object being,” as Deleuze remarks, “to establish conditions where the prisoners themselves would be able to speak” (Spivak 69). According to the Foucault-Deleuze argument, the subaltern's voice could be accessed directly; if the oppressed are given the chance, they can speak. However, Spivak makes the point that the subaltern “cannot speak,” not because they do not have the physical capability to produce words or sentences, but because they do not have access to the knowledge needed in order to speak in a social or political context and is, therefore, unable to tell their own