politics of violence: tormented body in j. m. coetzee’s waiting for the barbarians under the light of hannah arendt’s theories خشونت و جسم رنج دیده در رمان در انتظار بربرها اثر جی. ام. کوئتزی از منظر هانا آرنت

this thesis examines the significances and implications of inflicted physical pain in waiting for the barbarians (1980) by john maxwell coetzee (1940 - ). the researcher tries to show how body becomes a site for exercising violence. in this way, the government’s representatives turn bodies of the barbarians into blank pages through torturing in order to create the truth of the empire. in this process, torture is the harshest representation of a body, which demonstrates the most abstract reality of the empire. in addition, violence and torture have many components, which are analyzed in this thesis in order to show their functions in the systematic web-like orders of imperialistic and juridical power. furthermore, the nature of the relation between the one who has the power and the one on whom violence is exercised is the matter of interest in this study. in fact, this research is an attempt to show how bodies of barbarians and townspeople are the components of the empire’s power accumulation machine. additionally, the empire spreads racism in the town to justify violence and torture. actually, the government turns people to torturers; however, both people and barbarians are in pain and their bodies are participants of power circulation process. hannah arendt’s political philosophy is the theoretical root to analyze the relationships among the government, citizens and barbarians. in addition, elaine scarry’s studies on body and pain are used to define pain and its functions. besides, foucault’s ideas on power and deleuze & guattari rhizome analysis are applied to examine the characteristics of the empire, barbarians and the magistrate.