Foe by J.M. Coetzee is narrated by Susan Barton, the only female character who is cast away on the same island as Robinson Crusoe and Friday. Susan struggles for independence and power in a society that views her as irrational and less valuable due to her gender. Throughout the novel, Susan describes the island as "Cruso's island" and sees herself as a subordinate to the male characters. Susan is an unreliable narrator, and the novel examines her shifting perspectives and desire for freedom within the constraints of her society.

1. Susan Barton, the protagonist
of the Novel Foe by J.M.
Coetzee
by Bhavna Sosa

2. Prepared by : Bhavna Sosa
Paper no. 203 Postcolonial Studies
Semester : 3
Roll no. : 2
Submitted by : Department of English MKBU

3. About Foe :
● Foe is a 1986 novel by South African-born
Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee.
● Woven around the existing plot of Robinson
Crusoe, Foe is written from the perspective
of Susan Barton, a castaway who landed on
the same island inhabited by "Cruso" and
Friday as their adventures were already
underway.
● Like Robinson Crusoe, it is a frame story,
unfolded as Barton's narrative while in
England attempting to convince the writer
Daniel Foe to help transform her tale into
popular fiction.

4. About J. M. Coetzee:
● J.M. Coetzee, in full John Maxwell
Coetzee.
● He is born on February 9, 1940 in
Cape Town, South Africa.
● He is South African novelist,
critic, and translator noted for his
novels about the effects of
colonization.
● In 2003 he won the Nobel Prize
for Literature.

5. About Susan Barton
J.M. Coetzee introduces us to the
dynamic character of Susan Barton.
Susan Barton’s growing sense of
independence and willpower is one
unprecedented at the time, and adds
a new perspective to the story of
Robinson Crusoe.

6. Susan Barton : The Women on
Cruso’s Island

7. Susan Barton : The Women on “Cruso’s Island
Katie Debuck says,
● Throughout the novel, even long after Cruso’s death,
she describes the island as “Cruso’s island.” She
finds herself as the mere female companion to the
king and his manservant, Friday.
● Barton rationalizes Cruso’s role of king as she sees
him “on the Bluff, with the sun behind him all red
and purple, staring out to see…I thought: He is a truly
kingly figure; he is the true king of the island”

8. Continue….
● Barton’s role as a submissive supporting character to
Cruso displays Coetzee’s formulation of Susan as a
man’s woman.
● Susan is a sensual woman, and as the only female
character in both Defoe’s novel as well as Coetzee’s
novel, she is represented through her sexuality.

9. ● Susan Barton is a man’s woman whose story is
told through the words of a male author both
from outside the text and inside the text.
● She is created by one man, J.M. Coetzee, as a
woman of confusion and subtlety.
● Foe is not a story about her life, but seems to
be a device to describe her male counterparts
instead.

10. Susan Barton as
Unreliable Narrator
Jason Pric written,
Coetzee’s Foe: Susan Barton's (Un) Reliable Narration and
her Revelation through Misreading,
“ There is not need for us to know what freedom
means Suasan. Freedom is a word like any word… It is
but the name we give to the desire you speak of, the
desire to be free what concern us is the desire, not the
name” (Coetzee, Foe 149).

11. Susan, Gender and Rationality :
● Susan Barton, the female protagonist , is rational
and struggles for power and independence in the
society of the Enlightenment where the story is set.
● She is seen as non-rational, less valuable and as
Other of the white, European male due to her
gender.

12. Citation:
● Britannica, The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia. "J.M.
Coetzee". Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 Oct. 2022,
https://www.britannica.com/facts/J-M-Coetzee. Accessed 5 October
2022.
● Debuck, Katie. “Susan Barton: The Woman on ‘Cruso’s Island.”
Magnificat, Apr. 2007.
● Murtha, G. "Susan Barton," 2018.
● Margaretha, Nicklasson. "Susan and Friday: Rationality and Othernes
in J M Coetzee's Foe ," 2014, Accessed 5 Oct. 2022.
● Price, Jason. "Coetzee 's Foe: Susan Barton 's (Un) Reliable Narration
and Her Revelation Through Misreading," Seton Hall University
Dissertations and Theses, 2008, Accessed 5 Oct. 2022.

13. Thank you