J. M. Coetzee Foe

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J. M. Coetzee Foe

• Colonial Adventures, Crisis of Emptiness and
  Striving Authorship

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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

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Starting Questions (1)

• Do you know any examples of the following
  stories
• cannibals
• adventure on an unoccupied island
• women writers in traditional society.

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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.
• ??
• Silence of the Lamb.

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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

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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)

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Adventures on a desert island

• Savage, filled with latent dangers, and in need
  of civilization
• Deserted and an earthly paradise

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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 deau

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Island Adventure e.g. 3 -- The Blue Lagoon (1980)

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Postcolonial re-writing of The Tempest Aime
Cesaires 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)

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Retamar, Roberto Fernández
Postcolonial re-writing of The Tempest

• 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.

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For your reference

• For the other Latin American revisions of The
  Tempest, see
• http//www.barnard.edu/english/reinventingliter
  aryhistory/americas/shakespeare/onthetempest.htm

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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/cru
  soe2.html )

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THE ADVENTURES OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE

• Defoes embellishments
• shipwrecks,
• mutineers,
• and cannibals.

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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).

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Crusoe

• "I stood like one Thunder-struck, or as if I had
  seen an Apparition... (Chapter XVII)

• a self-centered, self-absorbed individual
• after two decades alone Crusoe discovers and
  rescues Man Friday.
• "twenty-eight years, two months, and nineteen
  days."

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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)

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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

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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

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THE ADVENTURES OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE its influences

• By 1895 115 revisions, 277 imitations, 110
  translations, 196 English editions. (Atwell 133)

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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).

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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)

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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

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Themecolonialism 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.

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Coetzees 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 Bartons striving for
  authorship.

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Coetzees 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.

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Coetzees revision of Robinson Crusoe Purposes
(2)

• Crusos love of emptiness in the sea-scape ?
  Coetzees criticism of the settlers 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 near-European features.
  In Foe he is an Afircan (qtd in Atwell 108)

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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 . . .

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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

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Foe Structure

• Chap 1 her experience on the island (Bartons
  speech to Foe)
• Chap 2 Barton and Friday in London, first in
  Clock Lane, and then moving to Foes attic
  writing letters to Foe (epistolary form)
• Chap 3 Barton going to join Foe in his hiding
  place, discusses writing more (Bs narration)
• Chap 4 from Foes attic to dive into the sea
  wrecks a first-person narration

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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 Susans narration?
  Is she a good story-teller?

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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

• Crusos 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

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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
• Fridays tongue 23
• no communication between him and Friday 56

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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

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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)

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Bartons 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 islandhow does it progress?
  Is it written?
• Why?

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Bartons 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.

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Bartons 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.

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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.