J. M. Coetzee Foe
Colonial Adventures, Crisis of
Emptiness and Striving Authorship
Outline
Starting questions (1): Islands and Cannibals
Examples of Colonial Texts
Cannibalism
Adventures on a desert island
Postcolonial critique
Robinson Crusoe
Coetzee: Life, Style, Major Theme, and Foe
Questions (2)
The text:
Different ways of Survival
Friday Barton & Cruso
“crisis of emptiness” and striving for authorship
Starting Questions (1)
Do you know any examples of the
following stories –
cannibals
adventure on an “unoccupied” island;
women writers in traditional society.
Examples of Stories about
Cannibals
Discovery of the natives in the New
World since Renaissance.
Sindbad from The Thousand and One
Nights: the cannibal giants of the third
voyage  Robinson Crusoe.
吳鳳
Silence of the Lamb.
The Westerners’ Views of
Cannibalism
16th -century travelers and writers – viewed
"man-eating savage of the Americas“ positively as
as a hero who devoured his defeated enemy in
accordance with custom;
18th c: Enlightenment philosophers -- used the
figure of the cannibal in their fight against
colonialists and Catholics.
Since the end of the 18th century -- a hateful
figure
Cannibalism & Africa
After the British abolished slavery in England,
they and other Europeans took
up the task of abolishing all of what they
considered savage customs on the
African continent. By the time of the Berlin
Conference, the Europeans regarded all of
Africa as a center of evil, as a part of the world
possessed by a demonic darkness, or
cannibalism, which demonism was their
Christian duty to eradicate. Writers during the
Victorian era such as missionaries and
explorers were responsible for promoting this
dastardly image of Africa.(source)
Adventures on a desert island
Savage, filled with latent dangers, and in
need of civilization
Deserted and an earthly paradise
Adventures on a desert island
e.g 1: The Tempest
Prospero, Ariel,
Miranda and Caliban
CALIBAN You taught
me language; and
my profit on't Is, I
know how to curse.
E.g. Enfant d’eau
Island Adventure: e.g.
3 -- The Blue Lagoon
(1980)
Postcolonial re-writing of The Tempest
Aime Cesaire’s Une Tempete
In his final speech, Caliban charges Prospero
with lying to him and holding him inferior.
Prospero, you are the master of illusion.
Lying is your trademark.
And you have lied so much to me
(lied about the world, lied about me)
that you have ended by imposing on me
an image of myself.
underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior,
That ís the way you have forced me to see myself
I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie!
But now I know you, you old cancer,
and I know myself as well. (162)
Postcolonial re-writing of The Tempest
Retamar, Roberto Fernández
Caliban and Other Essays--
(English version U of
Minnesota Press, 1989).
Since its original publication in Cuba in 1971,
"Caliban" has become a kind of manifesto for
Latin American and Caribbean writers.
Caliban -- a powerful metaphor of the Latin
American cultural situation, both in its
marginality and in its revolutionary potential.
For your reference
For the other Latin American revisions
of The Tempest, see
http://www.barnard.edu/english/reinve
ntingliteraryhistory/americas/shakespea
re/onthetempest.htm
e.g. 4: THE ADVENTURES OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE
Origin: Alexander Selkirk alone on the
island.. "four years and four months."
Location: The Juan Fernandez group of
islands -- 360 miles from Valparaiso,
Chile. There is now a thriving
community on the islands and the
worldwide popularity of Defoe's book is
reflected in the current names of the
islands - Isla Alejandro Selkirk, and Isla
Robinson Crusoe.
(source: http://www.dwest.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/crusoe2.html )
THE ADVENTURES OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE
Defoe’s embellishments:
shipwrecks,
mutineers,
and cannibals.
THE ADVENTURES OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE
18th century testament to the
superiority of rational civilization over
nature and savagery;
Puritan spiritual autobiography;
A celebration of hard work and faith (G
169).
Crusoe
"I stood like one Thunder-struck,
or as if I had seen an
Apparition...“ (Chapter XVII)
a self-centered, selfabsorbed individual
after two decades
alone Crusoe
discovers and
rescues Man Friday.
"twenty-eight years,
two months, and
nineteen days."
Friday
Master & Slave
"...and then he
kneel'd down again,
kiss'd the Ground,
and laid his Head
upon the Ground,
and taking me by the
Foot, set my Foot
upon his Head...“
(source)
Chapter XXII
. . .At last he lays his Head flat
upon the Ground, close to my Foot,
and sets my other Foot upon his
Head, as he had done before; and
after this, made all the Signs to me
of Subjection, Servitude, and
Submission imaginable, to let me
know, how he would serve me as
long as he liv'd; …
Chapter XXII
I understood him in many Things, and
let him know, I was very well pleas'd
with him; in a little Time I began to
speak to him, and teach him to speak to
me; and first, I made him know his
Name should be Friday, which was the
Day I sav'd his Life; I call'd him so for
the Memory of the Time; I likewise
taught him to say Master, and then let
him know, that was to be my Name; I
likewise taught him to say, YES, and No,
and to know the Meaning of them;
THE ADVENTURES OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE: its
influences
By 1895 – 115 revisions, 277 imitations,
110 translations, 196 English editions.
(Atwell 133)
THE ADVENTURES OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE: criticisms
James Joyce: prototype of colonist -- “cast
away on a desert island, in his pocket a knife
and a pipe, [he] becomes an architect, a
carpenter, a knife grinder, an astronomer, a
baker, a shipwright, a potter, a saddler . . . “
Lewis Nkosi: “[the myth of] building a
civilization from nothing is inseparable from
the story of colonization, of subjugation,
exploitation, and finally christianization” (G
170).
J. M. Coetzee: Life & Style
an Afrikaner who speaks Afrikaans,
has forbears involved in instituting apartheid,
is now critical of his own tradition and
heritage.
sees the South African situation as a
manifestation of "colonialism, late colonialism,
neo-colonialism." (GALLAGHER 15)
Non-Realistic; Self-Reflexive (about writing
itself) (different from Gordimer)
Theme: colonialism & decolonization
Dusklands -- aggressive imperialist violence –in
Vietnam and 18th century South Africa;
In the Heart of the Country -- setttlement of
uncertain standing and duration in a remote
farm in South Africa.
Waiting for the Barbarians -- anticipated
revolution –”a frontier town”
Life and Times of Michael K -- open civil
warfare. -- in an unspecified future
Theme:colonialism & decolonization 2
Foe -- set in an island in South America
-- power and authority under colonialism,
specifically, the power and authority of a
mode of authorship straddling the
metropolis and the colony.
Sailors, Slave traders
Police, debtors
Cruso
Susan Barton
Foe
Friday
"Daughter"
Coetzee’s revision of Robinson
Crusoe
adding Susan Barton – as a marginalized
figure;
turning Friday into a Negro, with his tongue
cut off;
turning Cruso into one focusing on his own
mastery and futile task
a story about Susan Barton’s striving for
authorship.
Coetzee’s revision of Robinson
Crusoe: Purposes
direct critique of colonialism;
concerned specifically with the white writers’
ambiguous positions in South African
literature:
e.g. “A Cruso on his island is a better thing than
the true Cruso tight-lipped and sullen in an
alien England” (35)  Afrikaners began to
turn their backs on Europe at approximately
the time Defoe was writing.
Coetzee’s revision of Robinson
Crusoe: Purposes (2)
Cruso’s love of emptiness in the seascape  Coetzee’s criticism of the
“settler’s love of the land and landscape
at the expense of the polity”
(“Apartheid” 124; Atwell 107-108)
on Friday: “Friday [in Robinson Crusoe]
is a handsome Carib youth with nearEuropean features. In Foe he is an
Afircan” (qtd in Atwell 108)
Friday: Chap 23
He was a comely handsome Fellow, perfectly well
made; with straight strong Limbs, not too large;
tall and well shap'd, . . .
He had a very good Countenance, not a fierce and
surly Aspect; but seem'd to have something very
manly in his Face, and yet he had all the
Sweetness and Softness of an European in his
Countenance too, especially when he smil'd.
His Hair was long and black, not curl'd like
Wool; . . .
Friday: Chap 23
The Colour of his Skin . . . very tawny; and yet
not of an ugly yellow nauseous tawny, as the
Brasilians, and Virginians, and other Natives of
America are; but of a bright kind of a dun olive
Colour, that had in it something very agreeable;
tho' not very easy to describe. His Face was round,
and plump; his Nose small, not flat like the
Negroes, a very good Mouth, thin Lips, and his
line Teeth well set, and white as Ivory
Foe: Structure
Chap 1: her experience on the island;
(Barton’s “speech” to Foe)
Chap 2: Barton and Friday in London, first in
Clock Lane, and then moving to Foe’s attic;
writing letters to Foe (epistolary form)
Chap 3: Barton going to join Foe in his hiding
place, discusses writing more; (B’s narration)
Chap 4: from Foe’s attic to “dive into the sea
wrecks”; a first-person narration
Starting Questions 2
Susan Barton vs. Cruso
ways of survival on the island
Ways of treating Friday
Ways of treating each other
Why does Cruso die on the ship?
Friday –why is his lost tongue so
important for Susan?
Is there anything special in Susan’s
narration? Is she a good story-teller?
Susan Barton vs. Cruso-Survival:
Her view of the island
15
Her story to Cruso 10
Wants to keep record
16- 17 (more later)
Find ways to go home
Survive her dark days
35
Cruso’s place: 8-9;
His stories: 11-12;
No escape 13-14;
Wanting to control
everything 20; 25
No journals 16; no
stories 34;
Futile work 34; law 36
Looks at the empty sea
scape 38
Susan Barton vs. Cruso-- Friday
Barton –Friday
Notices his singing
20
Sympathy for and
fear of his loss 24
His offering of white
petals 31-32
Cruso
Teach him only the
words he needs 21
Friday’s tongue 23
no communication
between him and
Friday 56
Susan Barton vs. Cruso-- mutual
relations
Barton
Sympathy for Cruso 25;
Soothing him in his
illness;
Agree to having sex
with him 29-30;
Grateful 35;
Speaking to him and
comforting him on the
ship 43-44
Cruso
Indifferent to
Bartonp. 9
Cruso  "crisis of emptiness"
Happens when the agents of colonialism
find themselves without strong ethical and
ideological support of colonialism.
a significant determinant of white South
African writing,
Some writers: choose to “[erode] one's own
biases“ in writing. (Cf Atwell 22-23)
Barton’s wanting to tell stories
Chap 1: “Let me tell you my story.”(10)
-- to the Captain: also tell her stories;
chap 2: insists on writing to Foe, to
have her story told and sold.
chap 3: to his hiding place: “The
history of ourselves and the island—
how does it progress? Is it written?”
Why?
Barton’s wanting to tell stories
p. 17-18 – helps one remember “the
particulars”; remember nice people 19;
p. 45 – “it is I who have disposal of all that
Cruso leaves behind, which is the story of his
island.” an inheritance, something to make
permanent;
 next chapter: way to achieve fame,
fortune, to acquire “substance” of her identity
(51)
 not being able to solve all the mysteries of
her story.
Barton’s story-telling
sense of immediacy:
address to “you.”
expecting audience response (7)
Re-telling the stories to remember them
(repetition p. 5; 11)
“imagine” things into existence: p. 49; 53, 60,
etc.
Wants her story to be “truthful” 40.
In the issue of teaching Friday, cannot be
exempt from being a colonizer.
References
ATWELL, David. J.M. Coetzee: South
Africa and the Politics of Writing.
Berkeley: U of California P, 1993.
GALLAGHER, SUSAN. A Story of South
Africa J. M. Coetzee's Fiction in Context.
Harvard University Press, 1991.