Foes: Plato, Derrida, and Coetzee: Rereading J.M. Coetzee’s Foe

Abstract

The novels of J.M. Coetzee both invite and reward multiple readings, and Foe (1986) remains one of Coetzee’s most deliberately innovative and literary of novels. In a prescient act, a conference on Foe was hosted by the Theory of Literature Department at Unisa as early as 1988, only some two years after its publication, which resulted in the perspicacious and incisive scrutiny of this aesthetically strategic work. More recently, Attridge (2005) has revisited his 1992 examination of Foe, and argued that the novel is both a plea for canonical status and an attempt to widen the canon. Following Attridge’s (2005) insightful essay, this article also returns to Foe, and appropriates Gräbe’s (1989: 176) observation that “the Derridean notion of the textualisation of all experience” informs the work, and therefore rereads it as a commentary on, and critique of, one of Jacques Derrida’s most influential essays, “La Pharmacie de Platon”.

Opsomming

J.M. Coetzee se romans vra om herlees te word en beloon ook die leser dienooreenkomstig. Foe (1986) bly een van Coetzee se mees doelbewus innoverende en literêre romans. Asof met voorkennis het die Departement Algemene Literatuurwetenskap aan UNISA reeds in 1988, skaars twee jaar na die publikasie van Foe, 'n konferensie daaroor aangebied wat tot 'n skerpsinnige en indringende beskouing van hierdie esteties strategiese werk gelei het. Attridge (2005) het in 'n meer onlangse herbeskouing van sy 1992-ondersoek van Foe geredeneer dat die roman sowel 'n pleidooi om kanonieke status is as 'n poging om die kanon te verbreed. In opvolging van Attridge (2005) se insiggewende essay, handel hierdie artikel ook oor Foe, en eien dit Gräbe (1989: 176) se waarneming toe dat “the Derridean notion of the textualisation of all experience” die werk toelig en dit daarom as kommentaar en kritiek op “La Pharmacie de Platon”, een van Jacques Derrida se invloedrykste opstelle, beskou word.