Thinking Activity: J M Coetzee's Foe

  'Foe' by J.M. Coetzee

Greetings, readers! This blog reflects on question from Megha ma’am, centered around J.M. Coetzee’s Foe. Through a comparative analysis with Robinson Crusoe.

Introduction:

Overview of Robinson Crusoe:

Robinson Crusoe, a novel by Daniel Defoe published in 1719, follows the adventurous life of Crusoe, a young man who defies his family's advice to pursue a life at sea. After initial struggles, he gains wealth from trading but is later captured by pirates and sold into slavery. Escaping to Brazil, he prospers as a plantation owner and sets out on another voyage to acquire slaves, but a storm leaves him stranded on a deserted island. Alone, he survives by salvaging supplies, building shelter, and documenting his experiences in a journal. Years later, he encounters native "savages" who bring captives to the island for rituals. Crusoe rescues one captive, whom he names Friday, marking the beginning of a unique companionship.

Overview of foe:

J.M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986) reimagines Robinson Crusoe from a postcolonial perspective, focusing on the silenced and marginalized voices left out of Defoe’s original novel. The story follows Susan Barton, a castaway who joins Cruso and his mute servant Friday on a deserted island. After Cruso’s death, Susan and Friday are rescued, and Susan struggles to tell her story in England with the help of Daniel Foe, a writer who reshapes her narrative, ignoring her voice and Friday’s silence. Friday’s inability to speak symbolizes the erasure of colonized peoples’ stories, while Susan’s challenges highlight the struggles of marginalized voices, especially women, in asserting their identity. Through its exploration of power, race, gender, and storytelling, Foe critiques colonialism and questions who controls history and whose stories are told.

 comparative and critical analysis of Daniel Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and J. M. Coetzee’s ‘Foe’. 

Island Narratives Revisited: A Critical Comparison of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Coetzee's Foe

Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is often hailed as a foundational work of early English fiction, particularly introducing readers to the concept of a solitary island adventure. Set during a period dominated by patriarchal ideals in the 17th century, the novel reflects the gender norms and hierarchies of its time. Men were positioned as authoritative figures, while women were often treated as possessions. Narrated from the perspective of a middle-aged white man, the novel offers insight into colonial views of the era.

In contrast, J.M. Coetzee’s Foe, published in 1986, revisits and reinterprets Defoe’s narrative, adding layers of modernity and critique. Coetzee reshapes the story by introducing a female narrator, Susan Barton, as well as altering the setting and narrative perspective, allowing the story to question historical values through a contemporary lens. While Robinson Crusoe is narrated in first-person by Crusoe himself, Foe allows Susan to tell her version, providing a fresh perspective on island survival and societal norms in a postcolonial context.

Authority and Perspective in Robinson Crusoe and Foe

In Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, the protagonist’s retelling of events is presented as the definitive truth, often interpreted as an autobiographical account. Crusoe’s dominance over his narrative mirrors his control over his environment, reinforcing his sense of power. On the other hand, Coetzee challenges the idea of a singular, objective truth by examining the limits of storytelling. In Foe, the struggle for ownership over Susan’s narrative is central to her interactions with Foe, highlighting the subjective nature of truth in storytelling. Coetzee suggests that narratives are shaped by specific intentions, revealing the biases inherent in historical accounts.

Silencing and Speaking: The Dynamics of Voice in Robinson Crusoe and Foe

In Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Crusoe is the sole narrator, presenting the story from a Western, individualistic perspective. His narration reflects how colonial narratives often suppress the voices of the colonized, with Friday’s perspective notably absent. Coetzee, however, gives voice to Susan Barton, a character missing in Defoe’s original, and through her, critiques the manipulation of stories by Foe (a fictionalized Defoe) to fit his own views. In Foe, Friday's silence becomes a central theme, symbolizing the larger erasure of marginalized voices in historical narratives. Coetzee uses this to critique the power structures in storytelling, emphasizing that silence can carry as much weight as speech.

Gender and Narrative: The Marginalization of Women in Robinson Crusoe and Foe

In Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, the focus is on male adventure and survival, with very few female characters present. This absence reflects the colonial era of the 18th century, when women were largely excluded from such narratives. Coetzee’s Foe, however, introduces Susan Barton as a central character, allowing her to challenge the male-dominated perspective of the story. Struggling to assert control over her own narrative, which is repeatedly altered by the author Foe, Susan’s character highlights the marginalization of women in both literary and colonial histories.

Colonialism and Power Dynamics:

Defoe's novel is often seen as one of the earliest works of colonial literature. Through his treatment of Friday and his dominion over the island, Crusoe embodies colonial attitudes, asserting his dominance over both the land and its inhabitants. The portrayal of the colonizer as superior and civilized reflects a Eurocentric perspective.

In contrast, Coetzee's retelling through Susan Barton, a character who challenges Crusoe's narrative, undermines the colonial ideology. Friday, who remains voiceless, symbolizes the colonized peoples who are rendered silent. Coetzee critiques how colonial stories erase or distort the voices of the oppressed, exposing the injustices inherent in colonialism.

Reexamining the Character of Friday

In Defoe’s novel, Friday is depicted as a "savage" who becomes "civilized" under Crusoe’s influence, reflecting colonial ideas that indigenous people require European guidance and authority. However, Coetzee reimagines Friday as a character silenced, symbolizing colonized individuals who are stripped of their agency to tell their own stories. Friday’s lack of voice forces readers to confront the injustices and dehumanization inherent in colonial narratives.

Intertextuality and Postcolonial Critique in Foe

Coetzee’s Foe critiques Defoe's Robinson Crusoe by challenging its colonial assumptions and highlighting how marginalized voices are often silenced in colonial narratives. The novel questions the notion of historical "truth" through Susan's struggle to tell her story, showing that all narratives are influenced by the biases of their narrators. Coetzee reimagines the characters of Crusoe, Friday, and Susan, offering a postcolonial critique that emphasizes the need to include diverse perspectives, especially those of women and colonized individuals, which are often overlooked or misrepresented in traditional colonial texts.

Conclusion:

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and J.M. Coetzee's Foe offer contrasting perspectives on colonialism, storytelling, and identity. Defoe's novel, written in the early 18th century, reflects a Eurocentric view of colonialism, with the protagonist Crusoe establishing dominion over the island and its inhabitants, particularly the character of Friday. This portrayal reinforces the imperialistic mindset that colonizers had the right to control and reshape the lives of indigenous peoples. In contrast, Coetzee's Foe, published in 1986, subverts this narrative by reimagining the story from the perspective of the marginalized and colonized characters, particularly Friday. Through the retelling of Crusoe's story, Coetzee challenges the authority and legitimacy of the colonial perspective, emphasizing the importance of giving voice to those who have been historically silenced or misrepresented.

Coetzee’s novel reveals that the act of storytelling is not neutral but inherently tied to power dynamics. The way a story is told, who gets to tell it, and whose voices are included shape the collective understanding of history and identity. By focusing on the silencing of Friday and the erasure of his agency in Defoe's narrative, Coetzee underscores how colonialism often involved the control of not only territory but also the narratives that defined people’s identities and histories. Foe calls attention to the need for a more inclusive, multifaceted approach to storytelling—one that acknowledges the experiences of the oppressed and challenges the dominant historical narrative. Ultimately, Coetzee’s work is a critique of the colonial legacy and a plea for a reimagining of history that recognizes the voices of the colonized, highlighting how power and identity are constructed through the stories we tell and whose voices are heard within them.

Thank you...