Realism and intertextuality in Coetzee's Foe

Much critical attention has been paid to the relationship between the works, in particular the early works, of J.M. Coetzee, and the mode of allegory. Indeed, this has been such an important tendency in studies of Coetzee's aesthetic method that Derek Attridge has recently developed a strong argument against this approach. While it is clear that works such as Dusklands, The Life and Times of Michael K, Waiting for the Barbarians and others in Coetzee's ocuvre, have apparently allegorical overtones, it is equally true that Coetzee has taken a strong interest in "realism" and the potentials of this mode, and that this interest has informed much of his work.