Open Access

Michel Viegnes

• The barbarian is a construct of the Other which can be distinguished from the "savage" through a certain degree of social organization and from the monstrous through its more realistic-historic outlook. Still, these categories are fuzzy and fantastic fiction – understood in a broad sense – makes new use of the barbarian people motif in a manner which makes the ideological undertones more visible despite an increased freedom from historical references. The " mob" (das Gesindel) getting out of the forests to devastate the civilized order, in 'Auf den Marmorklippen', embodies abjection in its clearest form, a violent return of the dark violent repressed. On the contrary, in the cycle of 'Dune, the Fremens' are 'barbarian' only in the eyes of the corrupt totalitarian elite of the Imperium. Despite their rough way of life, they represent a cultural order much closer to ecological harmony, which constitutes a major theme in Frank Herbert's saga. Borges' perspective, in 'The Story of the Warrior and the Female Prisoner', is not so much ethical/political as it is philosophical : the mutual fascination between the 'civilized' and the 'barbarians' is tantamount to magnetic opposites, border-crossing and meaningful otherness. These three visions of the 'barbarian' can be distinguished not only through their ideological underpinnings, but also through their narrative techniques.