What is the relationship between language, power, and colonialism in Coetzee’s novel Foe?
Beatrice Wedd
The novel Foe, published in 1986 and written by Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee, deals with issues of race and identity, hierarchy and, alongside these issues, the human condition.
In this novel, a character by the name of Susan Barton is cast ashore a desert island occupied by two men named Cruso and Friday (characters inspired by Daniel Defoe’s canonical novel Robinson Crusoe). On the island, Barton makes a role for herself amongst these two men that is subservient to Cruso but not to Friday — an African slave boy who, apparently, has no tongue with which to defend, express, or assert his identity. She is puzzled by their stagnant, somewhat futile way of living and she presses Cruso to attempt an escape. Eventually, they are rescued and they make their way home to England. She is replaced, Friday is displaced, and Cruso dies — reaching what could be called the ultimate place. From then on, Barton struggles to situate Friday within her culture. She assumes so much about Friday that she takes on the role of a God: manufacturing or redacting his personality at given times; reinforcing Cruso’s naming him as “Friday”; and teaching him how to use tools and to express himself. Barton’s aims in the novel reflect a greater trend within British colonial times…
