Foe By J. M. Coetzee: Novel Analysis

Foe

J.M Coetzee 's novel Foe (1986) is a metafictional novel that draws on fragments of other texts. In essence the novel is a representation of representations and it builds on Daniel Defoe 's Robinson Crusoe (1719). Language is a central feature in the novel and it becomes especially important for the character of Susan Barton. Susan is fascinated with the muteness of Friday the slave and on numerous occasions she attempts to teach Friday to speak and write so she can understand him and his history better. However, Susan believes that communication with Friday can only occur through speech and writing and it is this idea that presents Friday as a passive subject in Susan 's perspective. In the given extract, Susan returns to Foe with Friday

Coetzee states that, “Where I do my liberating, my playing with possibilities, is in my fiction. “But Friday is the true test. Is his history of mute subjection to remain drowned? I return to the theme of power” (248). In this quote Coetzee shows his attentive nature to the ways in which language may shape perception. As Susan uses language to shape how the readers view Friday Coetzee provides Friday with the power of silence. As a slave power is non-existent to Friday and Coetzee represents this idea through Friday’s muteness. He raises the questions of how the readers allows language to shape their perceptions. Coetzee uses fiction to liberate character’s that are left powerless in Daniel Defoe’s Robison Crusoe. Power is important to Coetzee so he addresses it through fiction. Susan’s confessional discourse is a way in which she becomes conscious of the herself and the power she exerts. These moments bring Susan into awareness and a sense of truth is introduced. The idea that Coetzee also brings across is that that people who maintain power tend to subject people to the way that they desire to see them. So the truth of those individuals are never explored because they are not seen as they are. The novel provides such individuals with that lost power. According to Attwell, “The one constant in Foe, marking the limit of self-knowledge in Susan’s case and overwhelming the narrator at the novel’s close, is Friday. There is finally no metafictional pre-empting of Friday’s power” (247). Friday is represented as having a sense of truth at the close of the novel which provides credibility to his character. Through this interview Coetzee’s intentions for writing the novel in the way he did relate to the given extract. He allows Friday to be a subject over his own life which is not the norm and he aims to