Welcome readers! This blog is written as a part of my third semester assignment in Paper No. 203 The Postcolonial Studies. In this blog, I will explore the topic 'Unveiling the Power of Silence : Subaltern Resistance in J.M.Coetzee's novel 'Foe.'
● Name :- Hetal Pathak
● Roll No. :- 09
● Semester :- 3 ( Batch 2022 - 2024)
● Enrollment No.- 4069206420220022
● Paper No. :- 203
● Paper Name :- The Postcolonial Studies
● Topic :- Unveiling the Power of Silence: Subaltern Resistance in Coetzee's novel - 'Foe' ●Submitted to :- Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
● Email Address:- hetalpathak28@gmail.com
● Date of Submission:- 1st December, 2023
Unveiling the Power of Silence : Subaltern Resistance in Coetzee's novel - 'Foe' :-
□ Table of Contents
● Introduction
● About J.M.Coetzee
● Background of the novel
● Subaltern Studies
● Subaltern's Silence in 'Foe'
● Conclusion
Introduction :-
The South African Nobel laureate J.M.Coetzee is one of the most important figures associated with post - colonial literature in English. As David Attwell has Pointed out that;
'Coetzee's novels tend to focus on the themes of power and authority, especially the complex dialectics they form under colonialism or its post- colonial legacy.'
However, according to sebastian smith ;
"While these thematic concerns are still prominent, Foe departs from J.M.Coetzee's other works in its 'predominantly postmodernist' qualities, including its self- reflectivity, metaphoricity and allegorical potential."
Its uniqueness also lies in the fact that it is a complex rewriting or adaptation of Daniel Defoe's canonical "founding father of the English novel" Robinson Crusoe. In the first chapter of Foe, its protagonist Susan Barton, from a female perspective, retells a Robinsonade story about how she spent a year with Cruso ( Coetzee purposefully omits the 'e' in Defoe's 'Crusoe') and Friday after she was stranded on an island.
But in the later parts of the book her story stretches beyond the confines of Defoe's island and she brings Friday back to England, where she becomes preoccupied with negotiating authorship and discussing the philosophical implications of writing with the writer Foe, who, needless to say, is Defoe's eponymous fictional incarnation in Foe. Therefore, it can be said that by appropriating not only Robinson Crusoe's characters but also its author, Foe actively engages in palimpsestic dialogues with its canonical counterpart to explore the dynamics between the different socio-historical contextualization of novel writing in Defoe's 18th century England and Coetzee‟s Apartheid South Africa. It argued that In 'Foe' postmodern techniques, Intertextuality and metafiction in particular, are central to its deconstructive approach toward the notion of post-colonial truth in silence.
About J.M.Coetzee :-
John Maxwell Coetzee ( born on 9th February 1940) is a South african and australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel prize in literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language. Coetzee moved to Australia in 2002 and became an Australian citizen in 2006. He lives in Adelaide. He has won the Booker Prize ( twice ) , the CNA Literary Award ( thrice ) , the Jerusalem Prize and The Irish times , International fiction Prize and holds a number of other awards and honorary doctorates.
Coetzee's mother was a Primary school teacher. His father was trained as an attorney. Though his Parents were not of British descent , the language spoken at home was English. He began writing fiction in 1969. Coetzee has also been active as a translator of Dutch and Afrikaans literature. The Swedish academy stated that ;
" Coetzee in guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outside."
The Press release for the award also cited his well - Crafted composition , and analytical brilliance , while focusing on the moral nature of his work. J.M. Coetzee is indeed considered an important and major figure in Post colonial studies. His works often explore themes related to Colonialism , and the Postcolonial experience in south - africa.
Coetzee's life :-
J.M.Coetzee's boyhood in the Cape Province was dominated by cultural conflicts, consequent upon his situation as an English - speaking white South African, and the social location of his schoolteacher mother, and his father, who practised intermittently as a lawyer. One Interesting detail, with significance for Coetzee's literary identity, is that he was accustomed to speaking English at home, while conversing in Afrikaans with other relatives.
In 1965, Coetzee returned to academia: he moved to the USA, to the University of Texas at Austin, on a fulbright exchange programme, where he produced his doctoral dissertation on the style of Samuel Beckett's English fiction, completed in 1969. He taught at the state University of New York at Buffalo, from 1968 to 1971, during which period he worked on his first novel 'Dusklands.' Coetzee's application for permanent residence in the USA was denied, and he returned to South Africa to take up a teaching position at the University of Cape Town in 1972. Following successive promotions, he became Professor of General Literature at his alma mater in 1983, and then Distinguished Professor of Literature from 1999 to 2001.
Coetzee has held various visiting professorships in the USA - at John Hopkins University, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago, among others. He has won many prestigious literary awards, including the Booker Prize ( twice : in 1983 and 1999), the Prix Etranger Femina ( 1985) and the Jerusalem Prize ( 1987). His international prominence with a wider readership beyond academia was secured with the publication of ' Disgrace' in the year 1999, and consolidated with the award of the Nobel Prize in 2003.
The question of identity, as a literary as well as an ethnic matter, has proved problematic for many white South African writers, especially those who, like Coetzee, have been raised in South Africa. Coetzee is not an Afrikaner, but a white South African inhabiting a very particular margin, since his background partly distances him from both Afrikaner as well as English affiliations. Yet J.M. Coetzee's own comments on his ethnic identity show him to be intensely aware of the slipperiness of his position, and of the historical guilt that connects colonial and Postcolonial experience. Although he felt no affinity with contemporary Afrikaner identity in the apartheid years, Coetzee admitted that he could be branded 'Afrikaner' , on the basis of historical connection, and as a way of identifying his guilt by association with the crimes committed by the whites of South Africa. J.M.Coetzee has indicated that ;
'His writing sometimes draws its validity from this sense of complicity.'
He knows three languages - English, Afrikaans, and Dutch. He has the nationality of two nations South Africa and Australia ( Since 2006). Coetzee's first novel was Dusklands (1974) and he has continued to publish a novel about every three years. He has also written autobiographical novels, short fiction, translations from Dutch and Afrikaans, and numerous essays and works of criticism.
Regarded as one of the most important writers of modern times, John Maxwell Coetzee is a Nobel laureate, twice Booker Prize winner and a son of South Africa. Even though Coetzee is now an Australian citizen, and calls the city of Adelaide home, he is very about clear where his heart lies:
'I did not so much leave South Africa, a country with which I retain strong emotional ties, as come to Australia,' he said upon becoming an Australian citizen.
Along with the likes of Alan Paton, Athol Fugard, Nadine Gordimer and Dennis Brutus, who all used their writing to lay bare the horrors of apartheid, his works are regarded as some of the most influential to come out of South Africa during this period. In 2005, Coetzee was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe (gold class), the highest honour the South African president can confer. He received the award for his;
'Exceptional contribution in the field of literature and for putting South Africa on the world map'.
His remarkable intellect was confirmed when he graduated, with honours, in both English and Mathematics from the University of Cape Town (UCT), going on to receive a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Texas in Austin, United States. He moved to the United Kingdom after graduating, and from 1962 to 1965 he worked as a computer programmer for IBM, and later moved to the United States. He returned home in 1971 after the US refused to give him permanent residency because of his involvement in anti-Vietnam War protests.
Before relocating to Australia, Coetzee taught English literature at UCT, and retired as Distinguished Professor of Literature in 2002.
It was Coetzee’s thought-provoking books, Life & Times of Michael K and Disgrace that led him to win the Booker Prize in 1983 and 1999, respectively.
'Foe' - Novel by John Maxwell Coetzee:-
"Foe" is a thought-provoking novel written by South African author J.M. Coetzee, published in 1986. This book is a reimagining of Daniel Defoe's classic work, "Robinson Crusoe," and it delves into themes of storytelling, colonialism, and the power dynamics between the coloniser and the colonised.
In J.M. Coetzee's novel Susan Barton is the main Protagonist and narrator. Coetzee's female narrator comes to new conclusions about Power and Otherness. She ultimately Concludes that language can enslave as effectively as can chains. The novel was written from Susan Barton's narrative point of view. She was from England and trying to convince the writer named Daniel Foe to publish her story. There are several major Plot differences in the two narratives. Though the island in Robinson Crusoe is full of cannibals and mutinies , the island Susan Barton describes is empty and monotonous.
"Foe is a satirical reinvention of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe".
"Foe novel was the subject of criticism in South Africa."
Background of the Novel :-
In an act of breathtaking imagination, J.M Coetzee radically reinvents the story of Robinson Crusoe.
In the early eighteenth century, Susan Barton finds herself adrift from a mutinous ship and cast ashore on a remote desert island. There she finds shelter with its only other inhabitants: a man named Cruso and his tongueless slave, Friday. In time, she builds a life for herself as Cruso's companion and, eventually, his lover. At last they are rescued by a passing ship, but only she and Friday survive the journey back to London.
Determined to have her story told, she pursues the eminent man of letters Daniel Foe in the hope that he will truthfully relate her memories to the world. But with Cruso dead, Friday incapable of speech and Foe himself intent on reshaping her narrative, Barton struggles to maintain her grip on the past, only to fall victim to the seduction of storytelling itself.
Treacherous, elegant and unexpectedly moving, Foe remains one of the most exquisitely composed of this pre-eminent author's works.
'A small miracle of a book. . . of marvellous intricacy and overwhelming power'
[Washington Post]
'A superb novel'
[The New York Times]
Silence as a Subaltern Strategy of Resistance in this novel :-
When apartheid was still ruling over South African society, J. M. Coetzee wrote Foe (1986). Though not regarded as Coetzee's masterpiece, it is one of the prominent works of the novelist knitting together different issues such as intertextuality, post colonialism,and language. Coetzee’s indirect reference to South Africa’s contemporary cultural, political, and social context will be made visible through a focus on the issues dealt with in the novel. In fact, it is the very indirectness of the novel that gives it an enduring quality to be read freshly at all times.
In this assignment, I will discuss about Coetzee’s novel Foe from the perspective of
Subaltern Studies to discover the role of the subaltern language in the novel. It shows how Coetzee establishes the context of subalternity
through the characters of the novel: Friday, Susan and Mr. Foe. In this novel, Coetzee indicates his conception of subalternity is founded on a definition of subalternity as power differential. The Power struggle presented through the contests of the characters of the novel to possess and control the narrative voice is an illustration of the transaction between the subaltern and the coloniser.
It is also discussed that Coetzee’s Foe locates him in a subaltern position in relation with Daniel Defoe and his novel (Robinson Crusoe, 1719). Then, considering Susan and Friday as two different subaltern classes, the two language strategies of subaltern resistance employed by Susan and Friday are contrasted to uncover the power of Friday’s silence. This study claims that For portrays the agency of the subaltern through the introduction of Friday’s active silence. His silence prevents him from being represented and appropriated by the dominant colonial language and discourse.
Subaltern Studies :-
India forms the context for the rise of subaltern studies in Ranjit Guha's edition of the first volume of subaltern studies l : Writings on South Asian History and society (1982). Among the scholars who contributed to this volume Ranjit Guha was the prominent figure who edited the first six volumes of the book. Generally speaking,
"Subaltern Studies is an intervention on Indian historiography to expose that it was rendered by colonialist elitism and nationalist elitism"
The scholars of this approach have attempted to show the silence of the subalterns, as politically and socially marginalised groups, in Indian colonial and nationalist historiography. Hence, it is this very silenced subaltern history to which they draw attention and offer a subaltern voice.
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's notion of the agency of the subaltern has undergone some modifications since the first time she expressed her disappointment in this regard in her classic article :- ' Can the Subaltern Speak?' (1988). Investigating the agency of the female subaltern in relation to her ability to 'speak' for herself in the colonial context.
The subaltern, before of all, has to consciously resist the colonial dominance and hegemony through not allowing the colonial power to
represent him/ her.
Pasquale Verdicchio argues there are two ways for the representation of subaltern cultures :
□ “Descriptions or representations by outsiders or …
□ Through the expressions of their own."
A major objection to Spivak’s insistence for the inability of the subaltern to speak is why the subaltern has to speak, when it ends in the subaltern’s transformation of identity and culture through means of representation. In fact, when the act of speech paves the ground for any type of subjugation, one of the possible ways to subvert such a subjugation is silence. Spivak’s famous question might be modified to “Can the subaltern be silent?”
The Subaltern's silence is an active means of resistance. Such a silence, as a language strategy of resistance, is charged with subaltern agency. Subaltern silence, indeed, is the voice of the subaltern that pushes the dominant forces to remain speechless to hear its voice. An outstanding example of the subaltern silence is presented by J. M. Coetzee in his Foe (1986) through the character of Friday.
Subaltern's Silence in 'Foe' :-
Coetzee’s Foe establishes an intertextual link with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719). This intertextuality comes into existence through setting (the unknown island), characters (Crusoe, Friday, Mr. Foe) and common themes (ship-wreck, colonialism, master-slave relationship, subalternity and etc.). In fact, Defoe’s novel functions as a novelistic tradition on which Coetzee’s work is founded. Defoe, as the father of English novel, and his classic work, Robinson Crusoe,
give life to the canon of traditional novels that Coetzee finds it necessary to show his link with it ,and therefore, to be credited by it.
Such an intertextual tie indicates also the colonial situation in which Coetzee and his novel might get engaged. Coetzee’s employment of novel form does not imply that he is deprived of introducing a subaltern strategy of resistance in Foe.
J.M.Coetzee taking part with the subaltern is displayed in Foe. In the first page of the novel when Susan has just arrived on the island as a castaway. Sprawling on the shore, she describes Friday as such ;
“A dark shadow fell upon me, not of a cloud but of a man with a
dazzling halo about him”
This air of majesty is created through linking Friday’s shadow to that of a cloud and his silence, which is central in the rest of the novel. There is a sense of inaccessibility about Friday. If Friday’s first image is placed beside
The first image of Cruso described by Susan, it will help to know more about Friday.
"At the gate of the encampment stood a man, dark - skinned and heavily bearded."
-Susan Barton
Friday is associated with a sort of mystique.This quality is preserved by his silence throughout the novel. The narrative of the first part, which is complete in itself, raises the issue of subalternity through its intertextual structure. It shows how the narrative voice gives a report of everything in the island ranging from Susan, Cruso, Friday, and their daily tasks to the surrounding island and its constant winds and stormy rains. In Susan’s narrative the subaltern is presented in terms of race (Friday)
and gender (Susan). Susan’s subalternity is double. Since she is a female in the patriarchal, colonial island of Cruso, and also, because ;
"There has never before…been a female castaway" in Robinsonade stories.
Coetzee's strategy for ' the speaking of the subaltern' is indicated in Friday’s silence. As the novel Progresses, we come to know that Friday’s silence is charged with activity.
As a strategy to give voice to Friday, Cotzee characterises the subaltern with the ability to remain silent. This silence makes Friday distinct in playing flute, dancing, dressing, and writing. Basing his argument on Spivak’s notion of “marginal space” from which the subaltern speaks, Kim observes that to Friday, dancing cannot be any medium of communication to be shared with others; it signifies space and time in which Friday can be himself completely. Thus, we might conclude that Friday’s silence results not from his tongue lessness but from his willful choice to protect his own space from another's invasion.
Conclusion :-
To Conclude, Foe presents also two ways of resistance, advocated by Susan and Friday respectively. Uncovering Susan’s strategy to speak her subalternity in the colonial language
disappointing, as Spivak argues, it is discussed that Friday’s silence proves to be a successful strategy of resistance against colonial representation and appropriation. Friday offers a new way for the subaltern to speak, that is, silence.
References :-
Ahmad Shirkhani. Silence as a Subaltern Strategy of Resistance in Coetzee’s Foe, iu-juic.com/index.php/juic/article/download/2804/2648/5235. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.
Flair Donglai. “POST-COLONIALISM IN POST-MODERNISM: A COMPARATIVE CHARACTEROLOGY OF J.M. COETZEE’S FOE AS AN APPROPRIATION OF DANIEL DEFOE’S ROBINSON CRUSOE .” Subaltern Speak: An International Journal of Postcolonial Studies Http://Interactionsforum.Com/Subalternspeak Oct. 2015, pp. 87–98.
“Foe by J. M. Coetzee.” Penguin Random House Canada, www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/395618/foe-by-j-m-coetzee/9780241950111. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.
Head, Dominic. J.M. Coetzee. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
“South Africa’s Nobel Prize-Winner J.M. Coetzee.” South Africa’s Nobel Prize-Winner J.M. Coetzee – South African Tourism, web.archive.org/web/20140112044440/www.southafrica.net/za/en/articles/entry/article-j.m.-coetzee. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.
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Thank you!
