SOURCE: Gauthier, Marni. “The Intersection of the Postmodern and the Postcolonial in J. M. Coetzee's Foe.” English Language Notes 34, no. 4 (June 1997): 52-71.

In the following essay, Gauthier studies the way in which Coetzee's novel Foe views history, including its interpretation of colonial discourse and postcolonial stances.

The relationship between the postmodern and the postcolonial has been viewed, at best, a tenuous one. In a recent interview with J. M. Coetzee in Contemporary Literature the interviewer questioned Coetzee as to his opinion about the relationship between the two, and was answered with what he called the “trivial” observation that the post- in both terms means “‘after’—after modernism, after colonialism … But I don't see where this line of inquiry leads.” The interviewer then responded, “I also don't see much of a connection between the postcolonial and the postmodern. … Those who draw it point to what they perceive as...