J. M. Coetzee Foe

1. J. M. Coetzee Foe Colonial Adventures, Crisis of Emptiness and Striving Authorship

2. 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 • FridayBarton & Cruso • “crisis of emptiness” and striving for authorship

3. Starting Questions (1) • Do you know any examples of the following stories – • cannibals • adventure on an “unoccupied” island; • women writers in traditional society.

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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)

7. Adventures on a desert island • Savage, filled with latent dangers, and in need of civilization • Deserted and an earthly paradise

8. 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

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

10. 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)

11. 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.

12. For your reference • For the other Latin American revisions of The Tempest, see http://www.barnard.edu/english/reinventingliteraryhistory/americas/shakespeare/onthetempest.htm

13. 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 )

14. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE • Defoe’s embellishments: shipwrecks, mutineers, and cannibals.

15. 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).

16. a self-centered, self-absorbed individual after two decades alone Crusoe discovers and rescues Man Friday. "twenty-eight years, two months, and nineteen days." "I stood like one Thunder-struck, or as if I had seen an Apparition...“ (Chapter XVII) Crusoe

17. "...and then he kneel'd down again, kiss'd the Ground, and laid his Head uponthe Ground, and taking me by the Foot, set my Foot upon his Head...“ (source) Master & Slave Friday

18. 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; …

19. 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 beFriday, 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;

20. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE: its influences • By 1895 – 115 revisions, 277 imitations, 110 translations, 196 English editions. (Atwell 133)

21. 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).

22. 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)

23. 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

24. 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 authorshipstraddling the metropolis and the colony.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. Coetzee’s revision of Robinson Crusoe: Purposes (2) • Cruso’s love of emptiness in the sea-scape  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 near-European features. In Foe he is an Afircan” (qtd in Atwell 108)

28. 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; . . .

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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?

32. 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-- Survival:

33. 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-- Friday

34. 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 Susan Barton vs. Cruso-- mutual relations

35. 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)

36. 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?

37. 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.

38. 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.

39. 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.