Metafiction in J.M. Coetzee's 'Foe'

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Vienna (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Introductory Seminar Literature (year 2), language: English, abstract: The main aim of this paper is to discuss metafiction in J. M. Coetzee's Foe (1986), which is a rewriting of Daniel Defoe's literary classic Robinson Crusoe (1719). I shall deal with the intersection of postcolonialism and postmodernism in Coetzee's works, give (a) brief definition(s) of metafiction and consider the origins of this term and its general functions. I will finally take a rather detailed look at metafiction and the discourse of power in Coetzee's deconstruction of the Crusoe myth.