The novel as ethical command

J.M. Coetzee's Foe

Bibliographic Data

ID20156237
AuthorsMike Marais (0000-0001-6794-3976, Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume16
Issue2
Pages62-85
Publication date2000-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Literary Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0256-4718 • E-ISSN: 1753-5387
PublisherUnisa Press (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.1080/02564710008530257
OpenAlexW2068406047
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited17

In this paper, I argue that, in Foe (1986), Coetzee depicts the island setting as a site that transcends history and that this depiction self‐reflexively points to the possibility of an autonomous mode of writing ‐ that is, a form of writing which posits the other rather than history as an a priori. The depiction conceives of the novel as the event of the writing subject's assumption of responsibility for the other; a performance of the ethical command through which the subject substitutes itself for the other. I maintain that it is through this alignment with the other that Foe, in a seeming paradox, posits the ability of literary writing to affect relations within history

A priori and a posteriori · Aesthetics · Depiction · Epistemology · Linguistics · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · Computer Science · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · South African History and Culture

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