Appunti completi modulo 1 - Foe + contesto storico (prima metà), Appunti di Cultura Inglese I

Scarica Appunti completi modulo 1 - Foe + contesto storico (prima metà) e più Appunti in PDF di Cultura Inglese I solo su Docsity! J. M. Coetzee, Foe (1986) J. M. Coetzee is a South African-Australian author and translator. He was born in Cape Town (South Africa) in 1940. He is considered as an insiderregarding to the South-African culture and population. South African is the African country with the largest European descendants population and they are called Afrikaners. They belonged to an ethnic group who came from Dutch colonisers migrated in Cape of Good Hope. Coetzee is one of the most prized and decorated authors in English litterature. He recieved the Nobel Prize in 2003 and 1987 he recieved the Jerusalem Prize. - master-servant dialetic (Hegel) - references to Apartheid (1948-1991) Europeans reached for the very first time South Africa in 1652, during a trading expedition made by the Dutch East India Company. Dutch and British fought for the control of South Africa: - 1652-1795: Dutch Cape Town; - 1795-1803: British Cape Town; - 1803-1806: Dutch Cape Town. Fixsry a In 1806, during the battle on «Dese Bay shores, British _ won and gained the control over the colony once again. i Since the territories of Cape West were rich of gold and diamonds, British colonisers i aimed to "steal" the entire region to indigenous populations. In order to emphasise racial differences, British enacted rigid racial policies and laws that, in some way, "anticipated" the Apartheid system. The Cape Town colony remained under the British power until 1910, when the Union of South Africa was created. It then become a dominion which included: - Cape of Good Hope; - Orange Free State; - Natal; - Transnavaal. In 1941 South Africa gained indipendence from England. After formally gaining indipendence, È THE DIMISIONAE COUNCIL'OFTHE CAPE © the National Party had been elected in WHITE AREA 1948. DIE AFDEUNGSRAAD VAN_DIE_KAAP BLANKE GEBIED The Apartheid system was introduced in the same year. The word apartheid comes from Afrikaans and means "separateness", "the state of being apart", litterally "apart-hood". This system lasted until the early '90s.  >in this part of Coetzee's speech, he underlines the psychological effects that apartheid caused on "the relations between human beings". He also states that his own writing has been influenced by segregation policies. He eventually says that all the South African literature is ‘n bondage" with its history, meaning that every South African work is deeply linked and characterised by the national history of racial segregation. J. M. Coetzee rewrote Robinson Crusoes story setting it during the apartheid context, like George Lamming did with 7he Tempest. The narrator: Robinson Crusoe was narrated in first person, by Crusoe himself who wrote a diary telling his personal experience on the island. Foe is narrated in first person too but, instead of a white coloniser man, the story is told by a female voice. The novel develops throughout Susan Burton's letters. Susan Burton was shipwrecked on the same island where Robinson Crusoe and Friday live. She spends some years with them on the island. After a while Crusoe falls sick and they are all rescued by a Spanish ship. Crusoe dies during the voyage and Susan Burton and Friday reach England. Before their arrival, the captain suggests to Susan to write a novel out of her experience on the island, but she is afraid that she does not have the authority to write a novel, so she looks for someone to write this novel. She ends up finding this author called Mr Foe (a fictional version of Daniel Defoe). They start a sort of "epistolary relationship" as Susan sends several letters to Mr Foe in which she tells him her story. The structure: Coetzee switches the perspective of the novel. The narrating voice of a coloniser is replaced by the perspective of a woman. In the literary tradition, the "conventional centre" was the role of men, but Coetzee chooses a "peripheral" voice, which is a woman's one. The characters: Robinson Crusoe is now depicted as a weak, fragile old man. He's not very talkative and he is not interested in telling his story. He gets ill several times and he also seems crazy and not reliable at all. Susan Burton is the real protagonist. She is a white woman who tries to find her kidnapped daughter but she is shipwrecked on the same island where Crusoe and Friday live. Friday is a black man who has been a slave even before meeting Crusoe. He was black: a Negro with a head of fuzzy wool, naked save for a pair of rough drawers. I lifted myself and studied the flat face, the small dull eyes, the broad nose, the thick lips, the skin not black but a dark grey, dry as if coated with dust. p. 5-6 In Coetzee's novel, Friday can't speak. He is unable to tell his story. -> Language is one of the key concepts of this novel. ‘One evening, as I was preparing our supper, my hands being full, I turned to Friday and said, "Bring more wood, Friday." Friday heard me, I could have sworn, but he did not stir. So I said the word "Wood" again, indicating the fire; upon which he stood up, but did no more Then Cruso spoke. "Firewood, Friday," he saîd; and Friday went ofl'and fetched wood from the woodpile "My first thought was that Friday was like a that heeds but one master; yet it was not so. "Firewood is the word I have taught him," said n Cruso. "Wood he does not know." I found it s se that Friday should not understand that firewood was a kind of wood, as pinewood is a kind of wood, or poplarwood; but I let it pass. Not till after we had eaten, when we were sitting watching the stars, as had grown to be our habit, did I speak again ‘"How many words of English does Friday know?" I asked "AS she needs," replied Cruso. "This is not England, we have no need of reat stock of words." ‘"You speak as if language were one of the banes of life, like money or the pox," said I. "Yet would it not have lightened vour solitude had Eriday been master of En; You and he might have experienced, all these years, the pleasures of conversation home to him some of the blessings of civilization and made him a better man. What benefit is there in a life of silence?" ‘vu might have brought p.21-2 Crusoe taught Friday just some basic words he needs in order to serve him. Crusoe chose a stock of words thinking he had the authority to decide what Friday must know. Language not as a mean to dialogue but only to give/recieve orders Language is considered from a hierarchical point of view, where only the master can use it to give orders to his servant -> pragmatical use of language "To this Cruso gave no reply, but instead beckoned Friday nearer. "Sir i Friday," he said. "Sing for Mistress Barton 'Whereupon Friday raised his face to the stars, closed his eyes, and, obedient to his master, began to hum in a low voice. I listened but could make out no tune. Cruso tapped my knee his lips to still me. In the dark we listened to Friday's bumming. ‘At last Friday paused. "Is Friday an imbecile incapable of speech?" I asked. "Is that what you mean to tell me?" (For 1 repeat, I found Friday he voice of man," he said. I failed to understand his meaning; but he raised a finger to in all matters a dull fellow.) 'Cruso motioned Friday nearer. "Open vour mouth," he told him, and opened his own. Friday opened his mouth. "Look," said Cruso. I pas ivory. "La-la-la," said Cruso, and motioned to Friday to repeat. "Ha-ha- ha," said Friday from the back of his throat{ “HChas no tongue? said Cruso. Gripping Friday by the hair, he brought his face close to mine "Do you sce?" he said. "It is too dark,.. said I. "La-la-la,.. said Cruso. "Ha-ha-ha," said Friday. 1 drew away, and Cruso released Friday's he said. "That.is why he does not speak. They cut out his tongue." hair. "He has no tongue, p. 223 In Coetzee's novel, Friday is not able to speak because 1) he is physically inable to speak: someone cut his tongue and 2) Crusoe did not teach him how to speak. "I stared in amazement. "Who cut out his tongue?" ""The slavers." ‘The slavers cut out his tongue and sold him into slavery? The slave-hunters of Africa? But surely he was a mere child when they took him. Why would they cut out a child's tongue?" 'Cruso gazed steadily back at me. Though I cannot now swear to it, I believe he was smiling. "Perhaps the slavers, who are Moors, hold the tongue to be a delicacy," he said. "Or perhaps they grew weary of listening to Friday's wails of grief, that went on day and night. Perhaps they wante i a is home Perhaps they cut out the tongue of every cannibal they took, as a punishment. How will we ever know the truth?" sa terrible story," I said. A silence fell. Friday took up our utensils and retired into the darkness. Susan asks who cut Friday's tongue and why. Crusoe answers that maybe slavers grew weary of listening Friday's complaints or they wanted not to let him tell his story. Robinson Crusoe, Susan Burton and Friday belong to different groups (apartheid categorisation) -Robinson Crusoe = European white man --> master - Susan Burton = European white woman -> Miranda (7he Tempest) - Friday = African black man -> servant