Page 3 - WFTB

THE ORIGIN

WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS is a film based on the novel by J.M. Coetzee, who won the Nobel Prize for Lit-
THE ORIG IN erature in 2003. J.M. Coetzee was the first writer to be awarded the Booker Prize twice: first for LIFE & TIMES OF
WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS is a film based on the novel by J.M.
Coetzee, who won the Nobel Prize for Liter ature in 2003.
Published in 1980, the novel tells the story of the magistrate of an MICHAEL K in 1983, and again for DISGRACE in 1999. WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS recieved both the James
outpost on the frontier of "the Empire". The Magistrate's rather
peaceful existence comes to an end with the Empire's declaration of a
state of emergency and with the deployment of the Third Bureau, due
to rumours that the area's indigenous people, called "barbarians" by the
colonists, might be preparing to attack the town. Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Penguin Books went on it name WAITING FOR THE
BARBARIANS for its series “Great Books of the 20th Century”.
Published in 1980, the novel tells the story of the magistrate of an outpost on the frontier of “the Empire”. The Mag-
istrate’s rather peaceful existence comes to an end with the Empire’s declaration of a state of emergency and with
the deployment of the Third Bureau, due to rumours that the area’s indigenous people, called “barbarians” by the colonists, might be
preparing to attack the town.
The novel, is an allegory about our own collusion with power, about power creating the conditions for its own destruction, about the
need for ‘Empire’ to make ‘the other’ an enemy to justify its own existence. It is the story of an ordinary man, confused and scared
and desperate to survive and what brings that man to stand in front of the juggernaut and say “NO MORE”. It is the story of all of us:
More so than ever now, as the civilization that has been built in our name over the past half century crumbles around us.