Waiting on the Border: a Comparative Study of Dino Buzzati’s Il deserto dei Tartari and J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians

Abstract

Il deserto dei Tartari and 1 share some crucial elements in common and it may seem strange that two authors with such diverse backgrounds like Dino Buzzati and J. M. Coetzee chose the same setting — a walled space on the border — and the same allegory — the threat of an invasion from the northern desert. It seems a reasonable hypothesis that a similar climate of political claustrophobia and insecurity as well as a sense of looming disaster shaped their works.