The deployment of metafiction in an aesthetic of engagement in J.M. Coetzee's Foe

Abstract

In this article it is argued that, in Foe, Coetzee achieves a synthesis of overt metanovelistic practice with engagement - two modes conventionally held to be antagonistic. By means of various metafictional devices, Coetzee establishes an equivalence between the relations of father/child, author/character, master/slave, reader/text and subject/object -thus presenting a critique which exposes the linguistic base of various forms of political domination, and which politicizes both the act of writing and the act of reading.

Opsomming
In hierdie artikel word aangevoer dat Coetzee, in Foe, 'n sintese van openlike metafik­sionele praktyk met betrokkenheid bereik - twee vorme wat gewoonlik as teenstrydig beskou word. By wyse van verskeie selfbesinnende tegnieke vestig Coetzee 'n gelykwaar­digheid tussen die verhoudinge van vader/kind, outeur/karakter, meester/slaaf, leser/teks en subjek/objek. Sodoende word 'n kritiek bereik wat die taalkundige basis van verskeie vorme van politieke oorheersing openbaar, en wat sowel die skryfproses as die leerproses politiseer.