J.M. Coetzee once said: The standard is the body.Whatever else, the body is not 'that which is not',and the proof that it is is the pain that it feels.[...] it is not that one grants authority to thesuffering body: the suffering body takes thisauthority: that is its power. Using this statementas a departure point this book examines how thesuffering body functions as a deconstructive tropein J.M. Coetzee's novels Waiting for the Barbariansand Age of Iron. It has been argued that it isimpossible to find a space outside discourse whereone can create a true counter-discursive narrative.However, this reading claims that the trope of thesuffering body acts as counter-discourse regardlessof these issues because its efforts rest not onlanguage, but on silence. The study makes use of adeconstructive theoretical basis and narrativeanalysis to refute previous claims both within thecritical reception of J.M. Coetzee's works andwithin the field of post-colonial studies. The studyshould be of interest to anyone who islooking for an original approach to one of the mostcomplex and critically acclaimed authors of our time.