Nadine Gordimer

Nobody expected that the Nobel Prize for literature would go once again to an African writer within a span of five years. The happy news is all the more welcoming in as much as the most covetous award has gone to a woman writer. Nadine Gordimer, who proves to be a worthy successor to Wole Soyinka. She is not a prolific writer, but whatever she has written has a ring of authen­ticity and a touch of originality. Above all, she is a wri­ter with a social purpose.

Nadine Gordimer has carved for herself a niche in the realm of South African literature, particularly in the treatment of the problem of apartheid. Whereas most of the South African writers take sides and divide themselves into supporters or opponents of the governmental policy of apartheid, thereby betraying themselves as literary artists Nadine Gordimer looks at the problem of apar­theid objectively from the human angle. She is less overtly political and more concerned with the human results of apartheid. Her writings bristle with feelings rather than with political arguments. She is primarily concerned with the exploration of the emotional consequences of apartheid. She has woven an intricate tapestry whose threads are: love, friendship, idealism, freedom and betrayal.

Miss. Gordimer has to her credit ten novels and several volumes of short stories. Some of her novels have been banned on the ground that they whip up racial pas­sions among the South Africans. But, in reality she is for putting an end to racial segregation in South Africa. She would rather support a violent guerilla movement to end the inhuman racial discrimination. And, to read Gordimer’s novels and short stories in their chronological order is to absorb what has been happening in South Africa over the years. Although a white, Nadine Gordimer, takes her cud­gels against apartheid in South Africa One of her early novels, A World of Strangers is a deeply moving record of the human results of apartheid. It is an authentic work of art. It shows how a reckless Englishman’s encounter with apartheid in South Africa brings about a total change of heart. Toby’s friendship with Steven, an embittered young African girl, touches him in ways he never thought possible, and when Steven’s own sense of independence from the rigorous rules of society leads to tragedy, Toby’s life is changed for ever.

At the same time, Gordimer is not a blind suppor­ter of the blacks. She comes down heavily on the erup­tion of factionalism and violence in independent South Africa when the revolutionary ideals are subverted by am­bition and greed. A novel of protest, A Guest of Honour shows how an English colonial administrator, James Bray, who sided with the black nationalist leaders, is frustrated to find the blacks quarrelling among themselves and indulg­ing in violence to satisfy their greed after getting independence.

Gordimer’s writings a subtle and detailed study of the forces and relationships that seethe in South Africa today. This is demonstrated in her novel, The Conversationist which presents the beauty, the largeness the sou­nds, smells and foliage in a ‘cool delicate prose’. The novel shows how a white rich man, Mehring, makes his life tragic with all the privileges and possessions to which he is an heir because he resists change that was most needed in South Africa when the blacks became a force to reckon with.

As a committed writer, Nadine Gordimer is concer­ned mainly with the crises which beset white people in the struggle against apartheid in the South Africa. This is dramatized in The late Bourgeois World which presents the tragic story of Max who drowns himself in the event of his failure to live well with his wife Liz.

Gordimer’s fiction is also geared to a succinct ex­ploration of the turbulent, political environment in the contemporary South Africa. This is evidenced in her Burger’s Daughter which unfolds the story of a courageous woman Rosa Burger, who comes toterms with herself after a suffocating encounter with a turbulent political environment.

In no other novel, perhaps, in Gordimer’s social purpose more persistent than in July’s People a powerful work dedicated to the noble cause of achieving proper understanding between, the whites and the blacks. The novel shows how a black servant rescues from the terror of war two liberal whites resulting in cutting across the prevalent racial segregation.

“Gordimer’s social purpose is visible in her short stories too. She has two hundred short stories to her credit. They are all poised over the dilemmas of Africa and its denizens of both shades-black and white. She continues to explore, the physical and emotional landscapes of South Africa through powerful themes which are universal in their appeal. Her short stories are a powerful plea for interna­tional integration of humanity in terms of art.