Voiceless Histories: Silence and the Archive in J.M. Coetzee’s Foe

Abstract

J.M. Coetzee’s Foe presents a radical reconfiguration of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, centering on the silences within colonial narratives and the politics of representation. This paper explores the intersection of silence and archival absence in J.M. Coetzee’s Foe through the lens of postcolonial and postmodern theory. By reimagining Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Coetzee interrogates the politics of voice, authorship, and historical representation, especially in colonial contexts. Central to the novel is the figure of Friday, a Black slave rendered voiceless, whose silence resists incorporation into the dominant narrative constructed by the narrator, Susan Barton, and the writer Foe. Rather than portraying Friday’s muteness as mere erasure, the novel frames it as a form of resistance disrupting the authority of the colonial archive and exposing the limitations of language and narrative to capture subaltern experience. The paper argues that Foe destabilizes the idea of the archive as a neutral repository of truth and instead presents it as a colonial construct shaped by power, exclusion, and desire. Coetzee’s use of metafiction and fragmented narration highlights how official histories are always incomplete, contingent, and complicit in silencing marginalized voices. Ultimately, this study reveals how Foe challenges readers to confront the ethical and epistemological dilemmas involved in speaking for the voiceless and recovering lost or suppressed histories.