Visualizing the “Shadow” and the “Ghost”: Re-evaluating J.M Coetzee’s Foe through the lens of Psychoanalysis and Postcolonialism

Abstract

The paper is mainly based on the study of colonial and psychological oppression, which can make someone totally devoid of his/her identity, thought, history, speech, desires and how these aspects are represented vaguely or rather ambivalently through different characters of the novel. It wants to speculate the boundaries between the past and present, the mental anxiety, the sense of awe and identity crisis of a black slave. This also marks a showcase of reversal of role as colonizer which is represented by two of the characters in the novel, a woman and a white man who is devoid of his own identity. The novel is connected with four of the characters mainly. The present study wants to get a look on those characters’ psychology as well as it gives a conception of how Postcolonialism is deeply rooted in psychological aspects.