The Barbarianism of the Civilized Man. Literary Allegories

The binomial civilized/barbarian is as old as the history of culture and civilization. What is grave is that humanity considers civilization as something definitive, earned for good, while civility can quickly and much too easily be transformed into barbarism. It is what authors like Swift, Kafka or...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inRevue de Transylvanie. Vol. XXV; no. 2; pp. 37 - 47
Main Author Felea, Alina Silvana
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Academia Română – Centrul de Studii Transilvane 2016
Romanian Academy – Center for Transylvanian Studies
Subjects
Language and Literature Studies
literature
civilized
barbarian
Kafka
Swift
dehumanization
allegory
Coetzee
humanity
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The binomial civilized/barbarian is as old as the history of culture and civilization. What is grave is that humanity considers civilization as something definitive, earned for good, while civility can quickly and much too easily be transformed into barbarism. It is what authors like Swift, Kafka or Coetzee demonstrate through literary allegories. Barbarism is equated with the attempt to annihilate the human being with the aid of the machine or through the military superiority of the civilized man. After all appearances this reality emerges: civilized man becoming a barbarian under certain conditions will never change, although in the era of globalism a structural change is foreseen. Communication will create the premise for knowing the Other, for showing understanding and tolerance towards him/her, so, in an optimistic scenario, the barbarianism of the “civilized” man becomes less and less possible.
ISSN:1221-1249