(RE) WRITING (HI) STORIES

Abstract

This dissertation is primarily concerned with a comparative study between two novelists writing in the same language but belonging to two different countries, and different periods of history. The first -the main focus of our study- is J.M. Coetzee a writer of the 20th century belonging to the South African context and the other is Daniel Defoe from 18th century Britain. The main scope of this study is concerned with the intertextuality involved in Coetzee's novel Foe -through Defoe's Robinson Crusoe- and the way it relates back to Coetzee's South African historical context. Our intention is to show the different strategies used in Foe that inscribe the book in the field of postcoloniality. As many critics have remarked, the novel "resists any clear interpretation". Different layers of meanings co-exist in the novel and inform its complexity and its distancing from the South African context. The overlapping strategies present in the novel create a kind of maze that confuses the reader and blurs the critic on his way of interpretation. Two main strategies of fiction writing are used in the construction of the novel and generate two overlapping layers of meaning in Foe. The first layer relates back to intertextuality with Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, at a first degree, and Roxana , at a second degree. The second layer is related to aspects of postmodernism. Both layers represent the key to reach the hidden meaning of the narrative which is directly linked to the problematic of the context of South Africa. This dissertation purports to be an original contribution to the comparative studies on Coetzee's work. The major aim of this study is to contribute in the open debate on Coetzee's works by positioning itself within the critical literature linking

Coetzee's work to its historical context. It is to be inscribed in the ongoing reflections on literature and writing and their interrelations with History: How Truth is found in Fiction and conversely Fiction in Truth. As a first attempt to introduce this author in Magister research in the University of Algiers we hope to initiate the interest in this field for upcoming scholars in our University.