Following the publication of

Foe

, J.M. Coetzee was confronted by some for allegedly ignoring the political reality of South African racial politics, which had reached a crucial crisis at the time. However, more benevolent critics have brought out the ethical rigour with which Coetzee addresses the role that story telling and silence play in the representation and sense of identity of those marginalized and repressed (see Spivak, Parry, Attridge, Attwell). This debate over the politics of fiction, and implicitly about the efficacy of particular formal strategies, accompanies much of Coetzee’s writing. He has been described, quite succinctly, as “a first-world novelist writing out of a South African context” (Huggan and Watson 1; on his sense of identity see also Head,

Coetzee

[1997]…

1879 words

Citation: Bayer, Gerd. "Foe". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 September 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5090, accessed 28 March 2024.]

5090 Foe 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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