This PPT is based on MA Semester 3 presentation on Postcolonial Studies, presented at the Department of English, MKBU. The topic of this presentation is 'Friday: The Muted Tongue of the Post Colonial World'.

1. Friday:
The Muted Tongue
of the Postcolonial
World

2. Academic details
Roll no:- 19
Enrollment no:- 4069206420220011
Sem:- 3(M. A.) Batch:- 2022-24
Paper no. :- 203 Paper Code:- 22408
Paper name:- Postcolonial Studies
Submitted to:- Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of
English, M.K.B.U.
Dated on:- 18/10/2023
Email:- trushalidodiya84@gmail.com

3. Points to Ponder
● Introduction
● Postcolonialism
● Friday in Robinson Crusoe and Foe
● Friday and his Cut Tongue
● Friday and His Muted Tongue: Symbolic
representation
● Myth of Philomel
● Psychological impact
● Snatching the Medium To Speak in Democracy

4. INTRODUCTION
● Foe is a Novel by J. M. Coetzee
● Written in 986
● Set in early 18th century
● Postcolonial Novel
● 4 chapters
● Satirical Reinvention of Daniel
Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’(Defoe)
● The story of Susan Barton, Friday and
Mr. Foe(Writer)(Coetzee)

5. ● “The critical analysis of the history,
culture, literature, and modes of
discourse
● Focused on the Third World countries
the extent to which the social and
economic life represented in the
literature was tacitly underwritten by
colonial exploitation.”(Abrams)
Postcolonial Studies

6. ● In ‘Robinson Crusoe’, Friday is the
character who is said to be civilised
by Crusoe
● Name is given by Crusoe
● Crusoe He tamed Friday with gun,
English and bible(Han)
● He tries to teach Friday Language and
Religion
● In ‘Foe’, Friday is tongueless
Friday in ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and ‘Foe’

7. ● Who has cut the tongue?
● “Your master says the slavers cut it out; but I have
never heard of such a practice, nor did I ever meet
a slave in Brazil who was dumb. Is the truth that
your master cut it out himself and blamed the
slavers?”(Coetzee)
● In the seventh chapter of ‘Stories of Women: Gender and
Narrative in the Postcolonial Nation’, Elleke Boehmer
argues Friday is the representative of the enslaved
‘Wholly other’- a figure literally silence, made dumb.
● Gayatri Spivak describes Foe as a didactic aid staging
the undecidability of the margin comment
Friday and his Cut Tongue

8. ● Colonial Violence- Now he has given the freedom speak and express
himself but is tongue is cut by the colonial rule- Wound of
Colonialism
● Pain is radically incommunicable experience
● Mute by his oppressors, refusal to mean within the oppressors'
system
● The story of Friday's Tongue is a story unable to be told, or unable
to be told by me. That is to say, many stories can be told or
Friday's Tongue, but the the true story is buried within Friday, who
is mute. The true story will not be heard till by art we found a
means of giving voice to Friday.(BOEHMER)
● When Susan teaches him to write, he Writes “O”
Friday and his muted Tongue: Symbolic
Representation of Colonial Rule

9. ● The myth of Philomel can be compared to
Friday
● In ‘Metamorphosis’, Ovid writes about
the myth of Philomel(Ovid)
● She was raped by King Tereus and he
Cuts out her Tongue, so that she can
not admit the truth of herself
● Snatching the voice of Philomel.
Myth of Philomel

10. ● Caracciolo talks Cognitive
Psychology(Caracciolo)
● Explore our mental process(“Brain Science and Cognitive
Psychology Explores Our Mental Processes”)
● Dependance of Friday on Susan
● Cut Tongue-Preconditioned mind
Psychological Impact

11. Snatching the medium to
speak in Democracy
● Power structure in Democracy
● Under Article 19(1)(a), all the citizen of India has given
freedom of speech(“Constitution of India”)
● As reported by Suhas Palshikar in India Forum In the past seven
years, there have been more than 400 cases of internet
shutdowns. Systematic efforts have been undertaken to
discipline the media by mounting cases and inquiries against
journalists, besides using various regulatory agencies to
target media houses. In 2020 itself, 67 journalists faced
arrests and/or inquiries, practically turning attacks on media
into official policy.(PALSHIKAR)

12. References
Abrams, Meyer Howard. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2015.
BOEHMER, ELLEKE. “Transfiguring: colonial body into postcolonial narrative.” Stories of Women: Gender
and Narrative in the Postcolonial Nation, Manchester University Press, 2005, p. 256. JSTOR,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt155j4ws.11?searchText=postcolonial+literature&searchUri=%2Faction%
2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dpostcolonial%2Bliterature&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%
2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A6f53377092cfdfe67dcadb39bfd725ac&s.
“Brain Science and Cognitive Psychology Explores Our Mental Processes.” American Psychological
Association, 2022, https://www.apa.org/education-career/guide/subfields/brain-science . Accessed 18
October 2023.
Caracciolo, Marco. “J. M. Coetzee's Foe and the Embodiment of Meaning.” Journal of Modern Literature,, vol.
36, no. 1, 2012. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jmodelite.36.1.90?read-
now=1&seq=6#page_scan_tab_contents.

13. Coetzee, J. M. Foe. Penguin UK, 2010.
“Constitution of India.” Legislative Department, https://legislative.gov.in/constitution-of-india/
. Accessed 18 October 2023.
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. FINGERPRINT PUB, 2017.
Han, Wenju. “Construction and Deconstruction of Imagined Community—A Comparative
Study of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and J. M. Coetzee’s Foe in Light of
Nationalism.” Journal of Language Teaching and Research, vol. 8, no. 6, 2017,
https://www.academypublication.com/issues2/jltr/vol08/06/15. pdf.
Ovid. The Metamorphoses. Translated by Allen Mandelbaum, Everyman, 2013.
PALSHIKAR, SUHAS. “Understanding the Downslide of India's Democracy.” The India
Forum, 5 May 2021, https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/understanding-downslide-
india-s-democracy . Accessed 18 October 2023.

14. Thank You