Waiting for the Barbarians

Concerned as it is with the historical and contemporary experience of formerly European colonies, postcolonial studies have shown little interest in the effects of such controlling power on non-human animals. In identifying the political, sociological, and economic impact of "Western" imperialistic pursuits upon non-European "others," post-colonialism has concentrated almost singularly on "other" humans. The cost of European territorial conquest and the discursive operations of empire, however, were not borne solely by human beings but arguably, by non-human animals as well. Indeed, it is just this argument that forms the subtext of J.M. Coetzee's allegory of territorialism, Waiting for the Barbarians. Relying on the narrator's imperialistic use of animal imagery, Coetzee effectively criticizes the operations of empire whose colonial legacy is responsible for the construction of what is essentially a non-human animal subaltern.