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Colonizers And The Barbarians

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Deconstruction was introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Later “deconstruction” develops to interrogate the assumptions of Western thought by reversing or displacing the "binary oppositions" that provide its foundation. (Shen, 2012) To deconstruct colonial discourse is not simple a process of expelling colonizers but more importantly reconstruct the cultural code that the colonial discourse imposed upon the colonized. (Georgetown University Library)Therefore to deconstruct colonial discourse involves breaking the binary oppositions built up by the colonizers. In order to achieve this, Coetzee set up a group of contrasting images between the colonizers and the barbarians. The barbarians, who were said to do evil things were depicted …show more content…

At first the old magistrate was a representative and upholder of the law and regulations of the Empire. Although he showed sympathetic to the barbarians, he almost turned a blind eye on Colonel Joll’s brutal torture. More or less, he was standing on Joll’s side and he involved in the torture by encouraging the boy to tell Joll the truth: “Listen, you must tell the officer the truth...Once he is sure you are telling the truth he will not hurt you”(Coetzee, 1980:7). After he rescued a barbarian girl and lived with her. His obsession with her body gradually made him realize the resemblance between Colonel Joll and himself, being torturer in a sense. He undergoes a journey to the barbarian’s territory to send the girl back to her people. This marks his resistance towards the colonial discourse. After he was imprisoned completely altered his position and realize the darkness of the empire and the innocence of the barbarians. He accused Colonel Joll that he is an obscene torturer who deserves to be hung.(72) After Joll failed to repress the barbarians and flea, the old magistrate distance himself from the imperialism by saying he and Joll are two sides of imperial rule(133). The negation of the Empire from an imperial magistrate is a powerful force in subverting the colonial discourse constructed by the Empire. The subversion of colonial discourse from inside along with breaking down the binary oppositions built up by the Empire together achieve the goal of deconstructing the colonial discourse in the

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