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Home  » Learning Paths » Postmodern and Postcolonial Fiction. J. Coetzee's Foe
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M.Virgolin - Foe. Chapter IV.
[author: Marco Virgolin - postdate: 2007-10-03]

Text: "Foe" - J. M. Coetzee
Task: Analyzing the fourth chapter of Coetzee's Foe

OBJECTIVES
Cultural: reflecting on post-modern writing
Intertextual: finding connections with other texts and media
Linguistic: improving english writing

 

 

Chapter four is a demanding part of the book: the reader can't understand the text at all, that's why a high level of interpretation is required (even to try to understand what Coetzee wanted to say).

The reader can't understand who the narrator is, since it is an "invisible" 1st person narrator.
The mysterious intruder sees Susan, Foe and Friday while they are sleeping at night, then, while he begins to read a letter (Susan wrote it to Mr.Foe), he immediately finds himself in a new location: a boat underwater. Here he finds Susan (now sleeping with the Captain) and Friday once more, who opens his mouth beating through all the boat and against the unknown narrator's face.

 

It sounds like a dream that recalls all the events in a sort of unconscious dominated realty. The narrator could be Susan herself, or maybe Foe, Friday or another person too. By the way, the episode is dominated by a lot of space and time lapsuses: when Mr.X enters "the home of Friday" (This is a place where bodies are their own signs), elements lose their proprieties, he can walk and live underwater, he can pass trough stargates and petals are floating like snowflakes.

In my opinion Coetzee wanted to give a strong idea of what the power of writing could mean, giving the reader a sense of confusion where even natural laws lose their effectiveness and the extraordinary power of feelings take place. I can't find a real connection with concrete aspects of the novel or of the context in which the author wrote it, but I'm sure he wanted to say something very hidden that only few cultured and expert readers could find.

 

If I wanted to translate this chapter into another communication instrument, I would use a film scene because it can describe all what is said clearly , making change  of locations, and letting the watcher see the scene from the 1st person point of view.