Re-writing as a postmodern Technique in Coetzee’s Foe behind Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe

Abstract

Rewriting is a technique used by the writer to retell something old, in a new form. It is a postmodern technique. In this sense, rewriting is built on a readymade text that carries its own thoughts and ideology but by using this technique, the writer exposes his own perspective rather than adopting the writer's vision of the original text. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is an aspiration for many writers. It helps them create their own texts depending on the idea that Defoe has presented. This paper hypothesizes that J.M. Coetzee's Foe as a novel that has been built on Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in which Coetzee rewrites the old novel into a new one, nevertheless, he has presented his vision as he intertextualizes the old novel in his. To validate this hypothesis, the paper used the postmodern theory as a guide and tries to apply its features on Coetzee’s Foe. The paper starts with an introduction to the selected novels, the theory of postmodernism and its features will be the methodology that is followed. The paper concludes the findings at the end.