Susan’s De-Marginalization in Foe from the Perspective of Feminism

Coetzee’s Foe, the rewriting of Robinson Crusoe, tells a story about how Susan, a female castaway and a character absent in Defoe’s original text, challenges Crusoe and Foe, and how she pursues the right to speak for Friday. As a marginalized woman in the patriarchal society, the process of de-marginalization of Susan is a topic worth exploring. Thus, with the assistance of Beauvoir’s existential feminism, this thesis attempts to explore Susan’s de-marginalization in novel Foe through analyzing the crescendo of Susan’s voice and Susan’s quest for authorship. The study draws a conclusion that Susan’s gradual loud voice from silence to cryout and the process of Susan’s quest for authorship illustrate that the process of her de-marginalization in patriarchal society is successful because of the awakening of her feminine consciousness and her transformation from “the Other” to “the Self” during the process. In addition, this paper can provide a new perspective on women’s de-marginalization in literature.