13/09/2007
SEPTEMBER 07 NOTES ON LESSONS
QUESTIONS FOR THE CLASS TEST
- Differences between the traditional novel by De Foe and the postmodern novel by Coetzee.
- differences and contents(topics): structure in narrator and narrative tecnique
- in reception(audience)
- why did the Nobel Prize Coetzee decide to write a novel which is a riadaptation of "Robinson Crusoe"?
- what does Coetzee's novel want to teach us today?
- what exchange in story line?
- who do you think is the ideal reader of this book?
- did you like this book? If yes, why?/ if no, why?
GENDER, RACE AND COLONIALISM
In the novel , Foe is a parody of the English novelist Daniel Defoe. The name Foe is ambiguous: it was Defoe's name before he gentrified it whit the De- and it is a synonym of "enemy". The word is present in Protestant religious texts where it stands for "the enemy", "the devil himsel"
In its historical use it was exploited by British colonists in order to define colonized peoples as "foes", a lexical attempt to justify their actions over "un -civilized" countries.
The text analyzes traditional canons of class, gender and race in the process of cultural acceptance and exclusion.
Written from the marginal position of South Africa, it questions marginality itself in a attempt to break the silence of post-colonial voices.
The novelist Coetzee places his novel against the traditional British "master literature" and examines the historical and discursive conditions under which South Africa authorship must operate.
In Foe Coetzee introduces a fundamental change: the narrator is a woman. Robinson Crusoe lacked female characters: the only feminine element was the island which was to be dominated and tamed by men.
Susan Barton's narrative introduces feminist self affirmation, specifically by taking the island conditions of Robinson Crusoe.
Another important difference with Defoe's novel is in the character of Friday : in Robinson he was a handsome Carib youth with near European features, yet in Foe he is an African.
The pertinence of Friday to black history is not in question: the inacessibility of his world to the European world is a consequence of colonialist oppression and racism. The mutilation in his mouth is emblematic of black African cultural castration operated by the white invaders.
14/09/2007
FOE-ETYMOLOGY
What is a word? It's a convention .
What is its function? A word carries a sense; a word is a carrier of meaning.
Foe is an obsolete word. It makes the reader curious.
Foe derives from De Foe who was a famous novelist; this is a postmodern technique.
Foe is a short word therefore it sticks in the mind .
Meaning is always differed .
Anglo Saxon: (Before the Middle Ages)
- hostile
- adversary deathly found in evil minded
- treacherous
15/09/2007
The word "Foe" transforms its meaning during the different periods.
What does Robinson Crusoe do in order to survive on the island? He finds refuge on the island.
FOE
De - (foe)
shipwreck man
takes refuge,
looksfor survivor
woman
Friday:
he is dark skinned
they believe he is a cannibal
he can't speak because he hasn't got his tongue.
What is the reason why the language is so important in the story?
The language is important because it is used to communicate. Only if we have the language we can make ourselves understood. Coetzee is very worried about the effect of Colonialism when people were aware that they had to use the language of the colonizers. The real enemy is the writer. The white invaders are compared with black culture.
Susan Barton looks for her daughter; Why does a woman give birth to a son?
- to continue the species
- because she wants to survive to death.
16/09/2007
POSTMODERNISM
Coetzee is a post-modern novelist.
What does post modern mean?
POST+MODERN How can something that is "post" be modern?
Maybe he uses innovative language.
Post= after modern
Post may mean "coming after" but also going beyond.
The concept of Modernity is dynamic.
Why is post colonialism?
What age is the modern age? Does the Modern Age refers to the contemporary age?
The people of postmodernism return to the modernage, analyse it with a new poin of view: the one of the contemporary vision.
The second half of the century was characterized by a revival of modernism, known also as " Post-modernism", which reached its peak in the 80s.
It emphasized fragmentation as a feature of 20th century art and culture, but unlike modernism which looked for ways of re-connecting to tradition and finding a centre of meaning, Post-Modernism wholy embraced fragmentation as the typical post-modern human condition.
Moreover, while modernists privileged " high" culture, post modernists combined the everyday aspects of popular culture with "high" art.
This hybridization and merging of genres is one of the most striking features of the post-modern movement.
Post-modernist attention to all forms of culture also accounts for the attention give to post-colonial themes and regional cultures.
17/09/2007
We have to study two topics: the historical background since the end of World War II and Postmodernism.
What is Postmodernism? It is a trend that also shows the characteristic of this period. It is a cultural trend.
In which period? After the 60s (cultural revolution).
Postmodernism adds some peculiarities in the analysis of art and culture.
Postmodernists don't agree on the idea of art addressed to a group of elite.
Postmodernists criticised a cultural trend for a limit kind of people.
Classical art is reinvented keeping some parts and transforming others.
RELEVANT POINTS OF POST MODERNISM
The way in which language is transformed
How do we reproduce meaning
Postmodernism questions the very nature of art and culture
Postmodernism asks if the classical idea of art is the idea of art.
Postmodernism readapted the language to the necessity of the contemporary context. The language is simplified.
Entertaiment is produced by the audiences' capacity to identify in a film, a music,a play,a spot...
Postmodernism mixes and adapts genres.
18/09/2007
THE SHIPWRECK , THE ADVENTURE , THE VOJAGE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LANGUAGE
Shipwreck from "ship": it implies dynamism, someone that moves. A seaman is the protagonist. Mobility is a modern and global concept.
The sea rapresents a metaphor.
Adventure is a Latinate word: to venture-> to move somewhere we don't know where we will be lead to; mistery and unknown are implied.
The adventure also implies a love affaire->gossip object. The idea of adventure captures the reader's attention. To be curious->to find out what we don't know: other places that are far from our knowledge.
Effect of sublime: an emotional style; gothic or horror novel.
Exotic->distant from what we know.
I move by sea-> I take a voyage
I move by land-> I take a journay
Theme of a voyage or of a journey-> Joyce's Ulyssis, Dante's Divina Commedia, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's travels, Calvino's Viaggio.
What is the essence of a journay or of a vojage?
They represent the adventure, the unknown and emotion.
A voyage inside oneself, in the unknown part of individual ( Freud ).
We must make sense of what happens around us.
The metaphore is a symbol." Robinson Crusoe" isn't a story about a voyage, it is a pretext. It is a novel about a voyage inside oneself.
What do men do in front of a danger?
How do we act in a dangerous situation?
Man develops a linear way of thinking.
Woman develops a reticular way of thinking.
Mr, Friday is a product of an other kind of adventure.
Susan Barton and Cruso are not sure if he understands them; he speaks with his body language.
Mr. Friday hasn't got a language -> it is a means of survival! Language is a mediation between the man and the world surrounding him.
My mind maps are different from the others.
Therefore Susan Barton has a different reaction to Robinson Crusoe's.
Women are more emotional than men. The women's left emisphere of brain is different from men's.
20/09/2007
PHOTOCOPY IS TAKEN FROM C.O. REILLY, POST-COLONIAL LITERATURE, OCP CUP, 2001
Coetzee's novel is an example of Postmodern novel.
Robinson Crusoe is a colonial novel; he is a man. The stronger part of society was represented by men. Women had a marginalized position.
Choosing a woman Coetzee provides a new point of view: the point of view of a marginalized woman.
Another marginalized character is Mr. Friday: he is black, he is a slave and he cannot speak.
Therefore he uses body language.
We haven't got a direct relationship.
Robinson's point of view is Defoe's point of view-> a man living during Colonialism ( 18th century ).
What does living in a marginalized culture imply?
What is the differencebetween being a woman and being a man?
Meaning derives from the perspective we look at things/the world.
Coetzeewas interested in investigating what the results of a changed perspective would be like ---->the shipwreck of a marginalized character
22/09/2007
ANALISYS OF 1st CHAPTER
Who is the narrator of the 1st chapter? Susan Barton is the narrator and the protagonist ( 1st person narrator ).
The novelist uses a lot of alliterations ( ex.-> "my" for 3 times ).
The anaphoric syntax recreates the idea of Susan Barton's effort; also it creates a phonological effect.
Again repeatition of syntactical order-> ripetitive use of similes-> they creates some exotic pictures.
The 1st reference to the island in the novel describes it "strange" and "uncommon".
From the narrator's point of view the island is strange and exotic.
The girl rows against the current ---> idea of very nice mental picture.
The immediately reaction on the island-> Susan sees a shadow of a man.
Dry tongue-> idea of effort, of pain.
Susan's solitude recalls the idea of an exotic nature, effort and pain.
The shadow is Friday's shadow.
Time of narration is shorter than the time of the original novel by Defoe.
Friday is a negro in Coetzee's novel.
When Daniel Defoe describes Friday, he decsribes him as an object.
Coetzee describes Friday as a man. ---> Some adjectives, different attitude.
Alliterations: flat face,dark gray dry.
Susan tries to make gesture to dry; she uses language and also gesture and body language.
She doesn't feel taken care of.
Susan thinks that Friday is a cannibal.
In this chapter there is a recurrent use of the same syntax and a frequent use of the sound "s".
In Coetzee's novel the narrator is also the protagonist ( as in " Robinson Crusoe " ), but the identity is different: Susan Barton is a marginalized woman.
26/09/2007
In the 1st chapter Susan Barton introduces the theme referring to her pain.
She puts the reader immediately in medias-res.
Daniel Defoe starts his novel with some information about Robinson Crusoe, he belongs to the middle class.
Susan Barton is compared to a flower: she drows the reader's attention, she is beautiful.
This island looks different from ordinary islands: it is strange.
Coetzee uses a lot of alliterations to create a mental picture, the similes create a better mental pictures and the metaphore are used to qualify.
The reader understands that the island is hot.
Baking--->the temperature is very hot.
She is happy to be cast away on the island because she is very tired.
Storyline is restricted. Events are not important in themselves.
What does this imply? Only the 1st chapter tells about events: they are all included in the first chapter ( this is a technical and structural choice).
03/10/2007
SUMMARY OF THE FIRST PARAGRAPH ( J.M. COETZEE ) OF THE PHOTOCOPY
Susan Barton is torn between two position s:
- telling Friday's story because it is important to leave a testimonial of what happen
- she feels unable to write about it
How to interpret Friday's actions and moods?
Coetzee uses Friday's silence to represent the exclusion of the perspectives of the blacks from colonial history.
The novel can be read on different levels: both as a rewriting of a colonial text and as a commment upon contemporary South Africa.
Through the novel, Coetzee gives those who are the innocent victims of conflict a voice and recognized their wider significance.
As with Foe, the novel can be read on a number of levels: both as an allegory and as a literary story.
However, the novel significance can be see in terms broader than those which reflect apartheid South Africa.
It is rich in symbols which the reflect very real aspects of South African experience.
The reader can interpret and the novel conveys fundamental, universal human needs.
04/10/2007
MODERNISM
A label for the predominant features of the arts during the first half of the 20th century.
Modernist literature, visual art and music tended to be experimental and formally complex, to underline the notion of the artist's freedom from traditional genre and form. (Symbolism , Imagism, Vorticism, Dadaism ).