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dc.contributor.authorNiemi, Minna Johanna
dc.date.accessioned2018-02-09T13:47:03Z
dc.date.available2018-02-09T13:47:03Z
dc.date.issued2017-05-10
dc.description.abstractHannah Arendt’s writings concerning individual responsibility create an important – and under-examined – context for reading J. M. Coetzee’s oeuvre, particularly his novel Waiting for the Barbarians. For Arendt, when a society fails to offer ethical codes of conduct to follow, people should determine those codes by themselves, since morality concerns people in their individuality during totalitarian times. Arendt’s ideas bear important similarities to Coetzee’s representation of the magistrate in the novel, as this character struggles to live with his conscience in a totalitarian regime. In Arendt’s world, introspection is only needed when the world around us fails to guarantee moral laws, and even then one should not focus on oneself only, but instead try to focus on the world around us. Coetzee, however, shows through the character of the magistrate how this internal dialogue easily becomes torturous in its nature. If political action is the most important aspect of Arendt’s thinking, then Coetzee shows through the character of the magistrate how modern, conscientious humans cannot just act politically; instead, their action is always marked by their personal weaknesses, including their feelings of inadequacy. Nevertheless, even if Arendt emphasises political action more than Coetzee, who shows that such action is necessarily marked by individual doubt, self-questioning and other personal inadequacies, the reliance on radical thinking, which is at odds with conformism, is a concern they share.en_US
dc.descriptionAccepted manuscript version. Published version available in <a href=http://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2016.1219210>South African Journal of Philosophy, 2017;36(2):223-238</a>en_US
dc.identifier.citationNiemi, M.J. Totalitarian politics and individual responsibility: Revising Hannah Arendt’s inner dialogue through the notion of confession in J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians. South African Journal of Philosophy. 2017;36(2):223-238en_US
dc.identifier.cristinIDFRIDAID 1499093
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/02580136.2016.1219210
dc.identifier.issn0258-0136
dc.identifier.issn2073-4867
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10037/12119
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherPhilosophical Society of Southern Africaen_US
dc.relation.journalSouth African Journal of Philosophy
dc.rights.accessRightsopenAccessen_US
dc.subjectVDP::Humaniora: 000::Litteraturvitenskapelige fag: 040en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Humanities: 000::Literary disciplines: 040en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Humaniora: 000::Kulturvitenskap: 060en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Humanities: 000::Cultural science: 060en_US
dc.titleTotalitarian politics and individual responsibility: Revising Hannah Arendt’s inner dialogue through the notion of confession in J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbariansen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.typeTidsskriftartikkelen_US
dc.typePeer revieweden_US


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