Symptomatic reading of Stevenson'sTreasure Islandand Coetzee'sWaiting for the Barbarians

Abstract

TheTreasure Islandby R. L. Stevenson symbolically mirrors the intention of the Europeans, ie. mis-presenting the non-west land and lifting the valuable resources and treasures. Stevenson constructs the discourse, in order to maintain the sense of superiority and authority over Other. Stevenson, being a colonialist exhibits his imperial perspective and creates the non-western land and its peoples as cannibalistic, exotic, dark and chaotic, and tries to construct the image of the westerner as rational, superior and civilized group. On the contrary, inWaiting for the Barbarians, J. M. Coetzee clearly observes this Euro- centric formation of Other and gives the message to the colonizers to view into barbarity latent in themselves. The construction of Self depends on the creation of Other. In other words, Coetzee counters the constructed binary opposition of the colonizers which is based on the futile assumptions and gives true voice to the natives, behind their constructed false image.