Foe by J M Coetzee

 Foe by J M Coetzee

           

Hello learners. I'm a student. I'm writing this blog as a part of thinking activity. Given by Megha Ma'am. So, in which I have tried to some answer in interesting questions. 

1. Write a blog on comparative and critical analysis of Daniel Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and J. M. Coetzee’s ‘Foe’. (Include all major points that we discussed in class)

🧭 Comparative and Critical Analysis of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and J. M. Coetzee’s Foe

Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) and J. M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986) stand centuries apart, yet they engage in a profound literary conversation. Coetzee’s Foe is not merely a retelling of Robinson Crusoe; it is a postmodern rewriting that deconstructs the colonial, patriarchal, and narrative assumptions of Defoe’s original. While Robinson Crusoe celebrates adventure, individualism, and the spirit of colonial expansion, Foe exposes the silences and exclusions that underpin such narratives.

🌍 1. Colonialism and Empire

In Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, the protagonist embodies the European colonial mindset. Crusoe imposes his culture, language, and religion on the island and on Friday, whom he renames and treats as a subordinate. The novel reflects the 18th-century belief in European superiority and divine sanction for imperial conquest.

Coetzee’s Foe, on the other hand, subverts this ideology. The island in Foe becomes a space of questioning rather than conquest. The power dynamic between Crusoe, Friday, and Susan Barton reveals the moral and linguistic violence of colonialism. Coetzee transforms the story into a postcolonial critique  exposing how colonial narratives were constructed through domination and erasure.

🗣️ 2. Voice, Silence, and Power

Perhaps the most striking difference between the two texts is the treatment of silence, particularly that of Friday.

In Robinson Crusoe, Friday is taught to speak English and adopt Christian values  his voice becomes a reflection of Crusoe’s authority. He is “civilized” through language, losing his identity in the process.

In Foe, Friday’s silence becomes resistance. His tongue is cut out  a literal symbol of the silenced colonized subject. Coetzee makes the reader confront this silence, forcing us to question whose stories are heard and whose are suppressed. Friday’s muteness becomes the center of meaning, representing the unspoken histories of the enslaved and the colonized.

👩‍💼 3. Gender and Authorship: The Voice of Susan Barton

Defoe’s narrative is dominated by male experience. Crusoe represents the rational, industrious, and self-reliant man  the archetype of Enlightenment masculinity.

Coetzee introduces Susan Barton, a female castaway, as the narrator of Foe. Through her, Coetzee foregrounds gender and authorship, exposing how women’s voices have been marginalized in literature. Susan’s struggle to tell her story and be recognized by the writer “Foe” (Defoe) mirrors the broader struggle of women to find a place in the literary canon. Her narrative becomes an allegory for reclaiming authorship from patriarchal structures.

🧩 4. Intertextuality and Postmodern Rewriting

Foe is a brilliant example of intertextuality  a dialogue between texts across time. Coetzee uses Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe as a framework but rewrites it with postmodern irony. By inserting Susan Barton and altering Friday’s fate, Coetzee destabilizes the notion of a single, authoritative narrative.

This act of rewriting demonstrates postmodern skepticism toward grand narratives and historical “truths.” Coetzee’s text questions the reliability of storytelling and the moral implications of representation   suggesting that every narrative is shaped by power.

🧠 5. The Writer and His Market

In Defoe’s time, the writer’s market demanded adventure tales and moral instruction  Robinson Crusoe fulfilled both. It was a product of the bourgeois literary market that celebrated self-made men and colonial heroism.

In Foe, Coetzee directly critiques this system through the character of Daniel Foe (Defoe), who manipulates Susan Barton’s account to make it marketable. This metafictional layer exposes the commodification of storytelling and the moral compromises involved in shaping narratives for public consumption.

⚖️ 6. Reality, Fiction, and the Act of Storytelling

Both novels explore the boundary between reality and fiction, but from opposite ends of history.

Defoe’s work reads as a realistic adventure narrative one of the first English novels   emphasizing reason, faith, and progress.

Coetzee’s Foe, however, questions the very possibility of objective storytelling. It is self-conscious and metafictional: Susan wonders if her story will ever be told truthfully, and Coetzee deliberately leaves gaps and ambiguities, forcing readers to confront how stories construct truth.

🕯️ 7. From Enlightenment to Postmodernism

Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe reflects the Enlightenment faith in reason, individualism, and mastery over nature. The island becomes a microcosm of human progress and civilization.

Coetzee’s Foe, conversely, emerges from a postmodern and postcolonial context  skeptical of such universal claims. It dismantles the myth of the rational subject and reveals the moral cost of empire and patriarchy.

💬 Conclusion

In comparing Robinson Crusoe and Foe, we see not just two versions of a story, but two opposing worldviews.

Defoe’s novel constructs the myth of the self-made colonial man; Coetzee’s dismantles it.

Where Defoe celebrates civilization, Coetzee exposes its violence.

Where Crusoe speaks, Friday is silenced   yet in that silence lies the truth that Coetzee compels us to hear.

Through Foe, J. M. Coetzee transforms Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe into a site of ethical and political interrogation   turning a colonial adventure into a profound meditation on storytelling, power, and the right to speak.

✍️ Keywords:

Postcolonialism | Intertextuality | Silence | Voice | Gender | Authorship | Colonialism | Metafiction | Narrative Authority

Thank you...!!! 

Be learners.