The are a lot of differences between Coetzee's Foe and the classical version of Robinson Crusoe.

First of all the title of the classical version of Robinson Crusoe is "The adventures of Robinson Crusoe". Coetzee chose the title "Foe", a typical post-modern choice. Foe recalls the surname of the classical writer of Robinson Crusoe: Daniel De Foe. The classical version is made up by a lot of chapters in comparison with the four chapters of Foe. Coetzee starts his book in medias res, therefore the reader can make many possible interpretation about such choice. Moreover the reader has a different ideal reader from the classical version. The ideal of reader of the post-modern version is an iconic ideal. An other difference between the two versions is the narrator: De Foe's narrator is a man and Coetzee's narrator is a woman. As a matter of fact Susan Barton, Coetzee's narrator, appeals to the reader's feelings and sentiments thought direct speech and Susan's letters to Foe. De Foe wrote a book of adventure, because the cultural and social background of which he was a projectors was made of people that want to travel with their mind to the distant and unknown island. Coetzee wrote a re-writing of Robinson Crusoe. Coetzee's novel show that rewritten novels do not simply offer new version of the past, but cause new questions.