AMNA2025-07-232025-07-232025-03-11https://escholar.umt.edu.pk/handle/123456789/3886This thesis offers insights on Representation, Silence, and Storytelling as means of resistance against colonial and patriarchal structures by analyzing J.M. Coetzee’s Foe through the theoretical lens of Trinh T. Minh-ha’s critique of Essentialism. Essentialism establishes rigid traits for individuals which supports established power systems. In her work, Woman, Native, Other, Trinh T. Minh-ha challenges Representational systems within Postcolonial Feminism because they create more control than empowerment for marginalized voices. She confronts mainstream narratives that pretend to grant voice while taking control of individual experiences. Minh-ha advocates for “speaking nearby” as resistance against imposed meanings while defining Silence as a choice for subversion rather than empty space. The examination of Foe as a Postcolonial adaptation of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe builds upon these concepts. The study applies Trinh T. Minh-ha’s critique of Essentialism and Representation to analyze how Foe constructs narratives through three main elements including Friday’s Silent resistance and Susan Barton’s narrative dominance and the novel’s structural fragmentation which opposes fixed identities. Using Minh-ha’s “speaking nearby” concept, this research analyzes how Foe resists identity reduction while questioning the ethical implications of speaking on behalf of marginalized groups. The research investigates how Friday’s deliberate Silence combats the application of representative narratives and consequently dismantles colonial Storytelling. Through Trinh T. Minh-ha’s Essentialist critique, the study investigates how Barton’s narrative control attempts create ethical problems in speaking on behalf of others in relation to Friday’s story. The study aims to demonstrate how Foe questions the authority of language and Representation, raising the question of whether marginalized voices can ever be fully captured in narratives without perpetuating power structures. By dismantling colonial structures and rethinking the processes of power, words, and identity, the study seeks to understand how characterization in Foe challenges Essentialist beliefs. It uses comprehensive textual analysis of the work of literature, anchored in Minh-ha’s ideas, to highlight how the text challenges conventional Representation and promotes moral interaction with marginalized voices. While addressing ethical issues in Representation politics and Storytelling, the study deepens the knowledge of oppressed communities that oppose Essentialist methods of creating transformational frameworksen-USThesis