Foe by J M Coetzee

This thought provoking task on Foe by J M Coetzee was assigned by Megha ma'am to enhance our critical thinking.


Introduction to Daniel Defoe:


Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) was an English writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the English novel. His works often explored themes of individualism, survival, and human enterprise, reflecting the socio-economic and colonial contexts of early 18th-century England. Defoe’s narrative style combined realism with imaginative storytelling, creating engaging fictional accounts grounded in everyday experience.


Introduction to Robinson Crusoe:


Robinson Crusoe (1719) is Defoe’s seminal work, often called the first English novel. It tells the story of Crusoe, an Englishman shipwrecked on a deserted island. Through resourcefulness, faith, and sheer perseverance, Crusoe survives for 28 years, encountering isolation, moral reflection, and ultimately the figure of Friday, a native whom he “civilizes.” The novel explores themes of survival, colonial power, human ingenuity, and European attitudes toward the “Other.”


Introduction to J.M. Coetzee:


J.M. Coetzee (b. 1940) is a South African novelist, essayist, and Nobel laureate. Born in Cape Town, Coetzee studied at the University of Cape Town and the University of Texas, later returning to South Africa to teach and write. His literary work consistently interrogates themes of colonization, power, morality, and human rights, often focusing on marginalized voices and the ethical complexities of oppression.


Introduction to Foe:


Coetzee’s Foe (1986) is a postcolonial reimagining of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. It centers on Susan Barton, a woman stranded on the same island, who seeks to tell her story and that of Friday, Crusoe’s mute companion. The novel critiques colonial narratives by emphasizing the silenced and marginalized voices, questioning the authority of storytelling, and exploring issues of narrative control, power, and representation.


Comparative and Critical Analysis:


1. Narrative Perspective and Authority:


Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe presents a first-person authoritative narrative from Crusoe’s perspective, offering readers a sense of realism and factuality. The story privileges the European male voice and frames Crusoe as the central agent of survival and civilization.

Coetzee challenges this narrative dominance by introducing Susan Barton as the narrator in Foe. Barton’s voice, however, is repeatedly mediated by Foe, the writer, who controls how the story is told. This reflects power dynamics in storytelling, highlighting whose perspectives are legitimized and whose remain suppressed.


2. Representation of the Other:


In Robinson Crusoe, Friday is portrayed as a “savage” whom Crusoe educates, a reflection of colonial ideology. His voice, agency, and inner life are largely invisible, reinforcing European notions of cultural superiority.

Foe subverts this by foregrounding Friday’s silenced perspective. Friday’s muteness in Coetzee’s novel becomes a metaphor for the erasure of colonized voices, emphasizing the limitations of the dominant narrative. Susan Barton’s efforts to speak for him further explore the ethical challenges of representation, questioning whether the act of speaking can ever fully convey the Other’s experience.


3. Themes of Power and Colonialism:


Defoe’s work can be interpreted as colonial and imperialist, portraying Crusoe’s domination of the island and Friday as an allegory for European conquest. His individualistic ethos mirrors the colonial mindset that valorizes control over nature and subjugated peoples.

Coetzee interrogates these themes through a postcolonial lens. Foe critiques the moral and ethical underpinnings of colonial authority, highlighting the silence, erasure, and marginalization experienced by colonized subjects. The novel engages with questions of justice, ethical storytelling, and historical accountability, offering a corrective to Defoe’s celebratory narrative of domination.


4. Gender and Marginalized Voices:


While Crusoe’s narrative centers on masculine experience, Foe foregrounds Susan Barton, highlighting female perspectives in colonial and postcolonial contexts. Her struggle to assert narrative control underscores broader questions of gender, voice, and agency, making Coetzee’s work a feminist as well as postcolonial critique.


5. Literary Techniques and Style:


Defoe employs realist techniques, detailed inventories, and pragmatic problem-solving to render Crusoe’s survival credible. Coetzee, in contrast, uses metafiction, ambiguity, and narrative fragmentation, inviting readers to question the authority of the text and the ethics of interpretation. These techniques emphasize literature as a site of power negotiation.


Conclusion:


The juxtaposition of Robinson Crusoe and Foe illuminates the evolution from colonial adventure narrative to postcolonial critique. Defoe’s work celebrates European agency and frames the “Other” as subordinate, while Coetzee’s novel interrogates narrative authority, representation, and colonial ethics. Through this comparative analysis, readers encounter the complex interplay of voice, power, and morality in literature, underscoring the necessity of revisiting canonical texts from critical, postcolonial, and ethical perspectives.


References:


Coetzee, J.M. Foe. Penguin Books, 1986. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foe_(Coetzee_novel)


Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. W. Taylor, 1719. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/521


"J.M. Coetzee." Encyclopedia Britannica, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-M-Coetzee


Donoghue, Denis. "Silence and Voice in J.M. Coetzee’s Foe." Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 36, no. 1, 2012, pp. 90–105. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jmodelite.36.1.90


"An Analysis of Foe by Coetzee." International Journal of English and Literature, vol. 8, no. 6, 2017, pp. 124–130. https://www.academypublication.com/issues2/jltr/vol08/06/15.pdf


"Foe: A Postcolonial Rewriting of Robinson Crusoe." GRIN Publishing, 2010. https://www.grin.com/document/21433


"Postcolonial Perspectives in J.M. Coetzee’s Foe." Tai Science, 2012. https://www.thaiscience.info/journals/Article/SUIJ/10984821.pdf


"Rewriting the Canon: Foe and the Colonial Text." GRIN Publishing, 2008. https://www.grin.com/document/59730


"Foe and the Politics of Narrative Authority." Taylor & Francis Online, 2016. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13825577.2016.1183422


J.M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Writing." GRIN Publishing, 2008. https://www.grin.com/document/120711

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