"Rewriting Colonial Narratives: A Comparative Study of Robinson Crusoe and Foe"

"Rewriting Colonial Narratives: A Comparative Study of Robinson Crusoe and Foe"

Self Introduction :-

Name : Rahul Desai 

Roll no. : 22

Semester : 3

Paper no : 203

Paper Name : The Postcolonial Studies 

Assignment Topic : Rewriting Colonial Narratives: A Comparative Study of 'Robinson Crusoe' and 'Foe'

Submitted To : Smt. S.B. Gardi, Department of English (Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University)

Email ID : rahuldesai477@gmail.com

Table of Contents :-

1) Introduction :-

2) Colonial Themes in Robinson Crusoe :-

3) Coetzee's Critique and Rewriting of the Colonial Narratives in 'Foe' :-

4) Voice and Silence as Symbol of Colonial Oppression :-

5) Power Dynamics and Authority in Storytelling :-

6) Postcolonial Critique and Decolonising Narratives :-

7) Identity, Agency, and the Reclaiming of Narratives :-

8) Conclusion :-

9) References :-

Now let's begin with deep discussion.

Introduction :-

Robinson Crusoe, written by Daniel Defoe, is regarded as a cornerstone work for early fiction and exposed readers and writers to the idea of an island setting for a story. Women were property while men were authoritarians. The novel is shown through the eyes of a middle-aged white male during colonization. Crusoe “owns” the island and instructs those living there just as if he were the “governor” or political leader-just as any British colony would be governed. 

Coetzee framed his work to provide an updated perspective of the story Defoe had composed by adding in the presence of a woman figure, incorporating a new setting, and more modernistic viewpoint. Susan Barton is the woman who narrates Foe. The way Susan Barton conveys her own story helps articulate her strengths. Her character is aiding to the lack of women from the earlier novel. 

Colonial Themes in Robinson Crusoe :-

Colonial representation presents semiotic meanings in which words, characters or situations often express contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes. Daniel Defoe in this novel deal with colonial discourses which reveal foreign cultures as “dark” and “depraved”. In the first chapter I will look at the colonial aspects of Robinson Crusoe where an Englishman asserts and reasserts his Christian moral and British superiority in order to consider his sense of identity and I will also show how subjugation, domination, profit and power are reflected in the adventure fiction. Colonialism is a practice of the powerful over the less powerful. 

Colonial representation relies on political images which are constructed by the ideas of power and domination over “others.” This type of representation is “man made”, so colonial representation is a kind of colonial discourse which creates a false Ideology. Slavery, mimicry, loss of confidence and identity crisis enter in the blood of the colonized in this way that psychologically they cannot come out from the terror of European, their aggression and greed. Colonized groups are represented in most of the European writings as a “metaphorical” figure. These dominant cultural bodies are always represented as shadow. Without this shadow whites cannot move. But they never realize even believe in the existence of these people in their life. We see this stand in most of European literature.

Coetzee's Critique and Rewriting of the Colonial Narratives in 'Foe' :-

J.M. Coetzee is considered to be a prolific writer who has responded effectively to the dominant narrative in colonial discourse. In his works J.M. Coetzee has exposed the colonial machinations, which the colonizers used to subjugate the colonized people. In this sense, Postcolonial literature is a counter-discourse, which unearths the hidden underpinnings in the colonial discourse. To dismantle the 'master narratives', Edward Said's 'contrapuntal reading' (1993) is a useful technique to understand the various methods used by the colonists in their representations of the natives. Colonists have portrayed natives of the occupied territories as violent and wild people, who are to be controlled through aggressive means. This fabricated representation of the natives gives a solid reason to the colonizers to justify their atrocities in the colonized territory. 

According to Bonnici (2004), Coetzee's novels mainly contain a critique of colonialism and its effects and also the ethical and historical restraints on white writers. According to Attwell, (1993) in South Africa Coetzee is a regional writer. In this famous novel Foe, J.M. Coetzee applies a certain type of reading that was named by Edward Said (1993) in his acclaimed book Culture and Imperialism as 'contrapuntal reading' of canonical European texts. Contrapuntal reading unearths the ideological underpinnings of the main canonical English texts like Robinson Crusoe that Coetzee directly counters in his highly multifaceted book Foe. 

J.M. Coetzee, a white postcolonial writer, has exposed the terrible violence of the Empire against the natives of South Africa. His sympathy for the black natives is quite visible in his novels, which narrate the stories of atrocities of the Empire in South Africa. White colonizers resorted to the worst form of oppression against the natives to colonize them completely. According to Moore (2008),racist connotations of colonialism is very much explicit in practice as the structure of colonialism was completely dictatorial. Coetzee reveals the malevolent intentions of the Empire, which remains fully involved in the worst form of oppression against the native Africans. Coetzee holds the Empire responsible for its aggressive policies, which provoke the feelings of insurgency in the colonized people.

Voice and Silence as Symbol of Colonial Oppression :-

Mr. Foe writes Susan’s story according to his will and inclinations, thus silencing the true ‘voice’ of Susan and making her ‘other’ on the basis of gender. Friday, on the other hand, is another victim of colonialism who was also silenced. Susan and Friday are two symbols of marginalisational and otherness. Bothe Susan and Friday are victims of this form of colonialism which is entailed through literary representation. By retelling the story from Susan’s perspective and by raising the themes of power struggle and problem of language, Coetzee, thus, provides voice to the voiceless and oppressed.

Cruso, Susan, and the reader never manage to catch Friday's story since it flows "from inside him… without interruption." Friday's quiet serves as a metaphor for the underprivileged and highlights the importance of letting them speak for themselves. J.M. Coetzee’s fiction focus on silence as a weapon of imperial oppressive forces to subjugate representations of the “other". Silence appears as a formidable oppressor in the literature of oppressed peoples women, the colonized, people of color who must escape the treachery of silence in order to obtain their freedom, peace, or equality.

By renaming Friday and teaching him English, Crusoe establishes his dominance and gains control over Friday's identity and expression. Crusoe enacts a symbolic erasure of Friday's indigenous culture, language, and independence by imposing his tongue. Because Crusoe controls Friday's role, conduct, and beliefs and denies him the ability to define himself for himself, his voice becomes a metaphor of colonial power. The linguistic shift demonstrates how colonisers used the colonizer's language to enforce conformity and silence indigenous peoples' native expressions in an effort to "civilise" them. By denying the "other" complete self-expression and agency, colonialism subjugates them, as Defoe's use of speech and silence highlights. Crusoe's filtering and limiting of Friday's voice highlights the colonial past's wider repression of indigenous traditions and viewpoints. In order to replicate historical processes in which colonisers established authority by muting or changing the voices of people they subjugated, Robinson Crusoe uses voice and silence as emblems of colonial tyranny.

Power Dynamics and Authority in Storytelling :-

Foe reimagines Robinson Crusoe's narrative to highlight the voices that are ignored, challenging colonial power dynamics in storytelling itself. Robinson Crusoe emphasises Crusoe's narration as the story's only, authoritative voice. The main character in Robinson Crusoe has complete control over the plot and the portrayal of events. Since his viewpoint is the only one offered, his survival tale serves as evidence of his tenacity and resourcefulness. Crusoe determines what is revealed and what is not, reshaping Friday's function to mirror Crusoe's authority. Due to his lack of narrative agency, Friday is compelled to take up Crusoe's language, culture, and values, which strengthens Crusoe's hold on power and erases Friday's identity. The way colonial powers have historically suppressed indigenous stories, leaving only the colonizer's version, is reflected in this narrative control.

Susan Barton, a castaway who meets Crusoe and Friday, is the vehicle through which J.M. Coetzee retells Defoe's story in Foe. The limitations of traditional storytelling are revealed by Barton's attempts to get her tale told, particularly when those in positions of authority restrict it. Coetzee questions whose stories are communicated and how persons in positions of power alter or obliterate the experiences of others through Barton's character. The way that dominant narratives frequently omit or alter marginalised voices to suit dominant interests is symbolised by Barton's annoyance with Mr. Foe (a reference to Defoe), the writer she hires to tell her story. Foe also critically paints Friday as a character who cannot or does not speak, signifying those silenced in colonial past. His silence, which is not supplied by Barton or Foe, emphasises the erasure and loss of indigenous voices that colonial narratives frequently repress.

Robinson Crusoe's narrative authority upholds the colonial idea of control by confirming Crusoe's dominance over Friday and his surroundings. There is limited opportunity for opposing viewpoints or criticisms of Crusoe's behaviour because his story is told as a single reality.By emphasising how power relations determine who has the ability to tell stories and who is silenced, Foe questions this unchanging narrative. The gaps and silences surrounding Friday's character in Coetzee's book imply that history and narrative are frequently written by those in positions of authority, omitting marginalised viewpoints.

Robinson Crusoe and Foe both tackle the intricate connection between power dynamics and narrative authority in their depictions of storytelling. While Coetzee's novel challenges this authority by emphasising marginalised voices and the moral dilemmas surrounding representation, Defoe's work demonstrates the use of storytelling as a tool to uphold colonial power.

Postcolonial Critique and Decolonising Narratives :-

The European colonial worldview is reflected in Robinson Crusoe, which was published in 1719 and presents Crusoe's island as a location that needs to be "civilised" and subjugated. Crusoe's connection with Friday and the island reflects European ideas of imperial entitlement, racial superiority, and the goal of "civilising" indigenous people. Crusoe's authority over Friday is a prime example of the colonial hierarchy since, in addition to saving him, Crusoe renames him, teaches him English, and imposes his own morals and ideals on him. Crusoe's activities on the island are a metaphor for European colonialism, in which native people are confined to subservient roles and frequently portrayed as "inferior" or in need of European "guidance" when territory is acquired without their consent.

Susan Barton, a castaway who interacts with Crusoe and Friday, is introduced by Coetzee. The plot is framed inside her attempts to have a writer named Foe (referring to Defoe) tell her own story. By examining the hardships of those whose stories are clouded by colonial narratives, Foe challenges the prevailing narrative created in Robinson Crusoe. Susan's annoyances with Mr. Foe serve as a reminder of how others in positions of narrative power reinterpret, change, or even erase her story just as they do for the colonized. By questioning the presumptions of Defoe's original work and drawing attention to the gaps in colonial narratives, Foe serves as a postcolonial critique. Coetzee challenges readers to consider historical narratives of colonialism and acknowledge the deletion and distortion of marginalized voices by reworking Crusoe's story.

By recognizing the intricacies and silences left by colonial histories, Coetzee's book attempts to decolonize the story. Coetzee highlights the boundaries of colonial thinking by leaving Friday's silence as a void that no one else can claim or explain, rather than filling it up with his own interpretation. Thus, Foe challenges the notion of "objective" historical records, arguing that they are frequently created by the powerful. It is consistent with postcolonial theories, which aim to restore agency to historically marginalized people and expose and contest the biases in colonial narratives. In a world where history are still frequently portrayed from a Western or Eurocentric perspective, Foe's postcolonial critique forces readers to consider the value of marginalized voices and to doubt the validity and authority of dominant narratives.

Identity, Agency, and the Reclaiming of Narratives :-

In Robinson Crusoe, the reader gets authentic details of Crusoe’s identity since the male figure is the direct focus of the novel, but in Foe, Barton offers the reader individual, physical characteristics that was not depicted in the first novel. Foe follows the aspects of a more modern view. Even though Coetzee portrays a more feminine viewpoint through incorporating Susan Barton, her decisions and mindset raise a debate in how they relate to the life of a woman in the twentieth or even twenty-first centuries.

Barton falls asleep one night, Crusoe begins to pursue her. She described that night by saying, “I pushed his hand away and made to rise, but he held me. No doubt I might have freed myself, for I was stronger than he”. Coetzee’s novel, the reader would argue that Barton’s character is going to remain as a strong, female character, one who is bravely sacrificing for others. As the novel goes on the reader’s opinion on Barton shift because her character is not as clear as in what she stands for. Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is used across the generations and influences writers who are separated by centuries. The novel offered the writing world the style of having island narration and displayed the seventeenth century views whether it be social, political or creative aspects. Although both books carry a different plot, they have similarities in techniques and in some social aspects. 

Conclusion :-

To sum up, Robinson Crusoe and Foe show different perspectives on colonial stories. By stressing the gaps and silences in colonial accounts, Foe subverts Robinson Crusoe's imperial attitude, which is reflected in his reinforcement of colonial power and repression of indigenous voices. By presenting under-represented viewpoints, Foe questions the legitimacy of prevailing narratives and invites readers to reflect on the significance of decolonizing literature and historical prejudices. When taken as a whole, these pieces provide a critical analysis of colonialism's history, identity, and storytelling.

References :-

Khan, Ishaq & Kazmi, Syeda & Qureshi, Abdul. (2021). The Violence of the Empire in J.M. Coetzee's Foe: A Postcolonial Perspective. Multicultural Education. 7. 2021. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356879254_The_Violence_of_the_Empire_in_JM_Coetzee's_Foe_A_Postcolonial_Perspective

Mullins, Cody C. Silence as Insubordination: Friday and Michael K’s Wordless Weapon, A Post-Colonial Approach to J.M. Coetzee’s Foe and Life and Times of Michael K., May 2009. https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1744&context=etd

Mercure, Savannah. Comparison of Robinson Crusoe and Foe, 4 Oct. 2018. https://introtofictionf18.web.unc.edu/2018/10/comparison-of-robinson-crusoe-and-foe/

Pandhare, Avinash L. POST-COLONIALISM IN THE NOVELS OF J M COETZEE, Jan-March 2016. https://www.researchjourney.net/upload/jan-mar16/2-Avinash%20L.%20Pandhare%20&%20Dr.%20Rajendra%20R.%20Jane%20-%20Research%20Journey-Jan-March-2016.pdf

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/61803058.pdf

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