Gordimer, Nadine - Style and Work

Nadine Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer was a South African writer, political activist and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature.
In the 60s she became friend of Nelson Mandela=she did her best to support Mandela and his cause.
non-white people had a special pass to move in areas where people were not allowed to move: since she did not want to have this passport with south Africa: protested--> 60 killed and there was a new face towards the end of apartheid

Apartheid: Afrikaner word for ‘’separateness’’=black people were segregated in South Africa= separated from the whites and had no civil right. For example, non-white people had a special pass to move in areas of South Africa, while white people had not.
Officially started in 1948 (but even before), but time went by and there was still this segregation law=blacks started to resist it, until 1992: general elections with Mandela as prime minister of South Africa (after a life spent in prison).
the protests for the abolition of Apartheid started in the 60s (Nadine joined these protests, in particular those for the abolition of the special pass=60 people were killed) which saw violent reactions from the whites--> Mandela represents the African National Movement, asking for freedom, independence and democracy. For this reason, Mandela stayed in prison for 27 years, until 1990= when lots of countries started to reconsider what was happening in South Africa and the important role played by Mandela.

For this reason, the main theme of Nadine’s work is Apartheid, but she also wrote about migration, poor and black in general= as a privileged white she did her best to improve their condition--->she spent all her life denouncing these crimes.
Other topics she dealt with: Mozambique was experiencing a civil war in the 40s supported by the white of south Africa-->all the countries in south Africa were gradually becoming democracy=Mozambique was the last country with no democracy. Anyway, whites of South Africa did not want that country to be governed by black people.

She really thought she had to support the weak, because she thought she was aimed in life.
When the Apartheid finished in 1982, Nadine went on writing about immigration/and other social problems without stopping.
She said something important about censorship=she lived in a country where it was common to have books banned: ‘’because in my country there is no way to have freedom speech, I think that all the books that are list in censorship, they are the best books produced here’’=depending on what country you are, you have different perspectives of things.

At the very beginning of her life Nadine did not realize about the condition of the other: she started writing at the age of 9, and so she did not realize at that time.

''Essential gesture''

Essay wrote by Nadine Gordimer, in which she expresses important notions= when she was young, she did not realize the condition black people were living= she was innocent, she had no responsibility.
In the essay she defines the essential gesture of writing= writers have to be responsible.
Her philosophy about the role of the writer: Thanks to the writer the meaning of something can be showed to the audience= for this reason the writer has to:
be responsible for what she/he says and the possible interpretation.
Reveal the others the meaning of something: that is the essential gesture.
For that reason, she did not distinguish witing novels or essays: in all this kind of writings she has to keep in mind the responsibility.
Even in a fiction she can't avoid being responsible and make people aware/see=fiction was the only way to write for her and show the actions of the whites in Africa (she felt disgusted towards the behaviour of the whites).
She could not but being political, writing about politics: that was because she lived in the part of history which somehow forced her to do it -could not but talk about it-.

Important: Nadine Gordimer used fiction to denounce=she asserts that her fiction is much more real than whatever newspaper=she wanted to say that fiction is a way to make the reader understand better reality--> she thought journalism was superficial/shallow=if you wanted to have a detailed and full meaning of something, you need fiction----> The ultimate safari (short story) is the best example to demonstrate this understanding: if you just read the news in the newspaper probably you wouldn't have moved like reading fiction=the innocent perspective of the protagonist, a black girl, shows much more than any other description.
The strategy/technique of using fiction to denounce social problems was used by another activist: Aung San Suu Kyi (she wrote in the 90s ‘’letters from Burma’’, in order to denounce human right’s violations in her country) =she asserts that if she had denounced in a journalistic way, probably nobody would have believed her=she preferred to use a sort of fictional way of writing and denouncing, because she thought it was the best way to show these crimes against humankind.
It seems that you can get something more of an event if you write it as fiction.

In short stories everything that is told is relevant: being ‘’short’’ means that you cannot waste words in writing for extra information. Furthermore, short stories became important thanks to Edgar Allan Poe: thanks to him short stories began to be considered much more relevant than novels=they allow to keep the attention of the audience/readers up and to involve them.

Style

- Nadine used a simple language
- stream of consciousness technique
- The characters are presented through their actions not beliefs.