쿳시의 『야만인을 기다리며』에 나타난 자유주의와 알레고리 문제

Although many Western scholars regarded the protagonists of Coetzee`s works as champions of Western liberalism, this study asserts that the magistrate of The Waiting for the Barbarians is far from a liberal hero, i.e., the kind of figure who tries to uphold liberal principles and also reaches a great moral awakening through a painful process of physical and spiritual mortification. For instance, the magistrate believes himself to and also tries to be morally differentiable from the Empire. However, what he is not aware of is that he sees through the eyes of the Empire even after he openly rebels against the Empire. Even his attempt at purifying himself of the sin of his colleague, is not free from a pursuit self-interest. Due to his failure to see a nomadic girl an equal human being, the magistrate nullifies the possibility for a genuine interracial relationship. Viewed in this context, the magistrate, this study argues, is comparable to the English-speaking white in South Africa. Thus argument is based on the fact that the English-speakers in South Africa were denounced by the radical blacks as feeding on the very system they criticized and also the fact that any possible alliance with them was flatly denied by the leaders of the Black Consciousness Movement of 1970`s. This movement`s view that `Even the best-intentioned white could never really understand the suffering of the blacks` is alluded to when the magistrate, even with his humanitarian attitude, fails to understand what the `barbarian girl` really wanted from him. Coetzee`s novels are often allegorical, and this narrative feature that tends to solicit abstract and universal interpretation has brought upon the author an ignominy of historical escapism. This study is an attempt to write back to the negative criticism by interpreting Coetzee`s novel within the context of South Africa, specifically, of the dynamics between the South African English-speakers and blacks.