Copy of Nadine Gordimer

Her Life Related to Her Writing

In Relation to Her Life

some critics saw in her fiction a theme of personal as well as political liberation, reflecting her struggles growing up under the possessive, controlling watch of a mother trapped in an unhappy marriage.

Censorship

Gordimer's early interest in racial and economic inequality in South Africa was shaped in part by her parents. Her father's experience as a refugee in tsarist Russia helped form Gordimers' political identity Gordimer saw activism by her mother, whose concern about the poverty and discrimination faced by black people in South Africa led her to found a crèche (kind of like a nursery) for black children.Gordimer also witnessed government repression first-hand as previously mentioned when as a teenager; the police raided her family home, confiscating letters and diaries from a servant's room.

Nadine took inspiration from her life, in which she advocated against racial inequality and apartheid. her short stories embodied her deep contempt for white supremacy and showed the south african view of life from the counter perspective .

Within Jump

The Late Bourgeois World was Gordimer's first personal experience with censorship; it was banned in 1976 for a decade by the South African government.

A World of Strangers was banned for twelve years.

Other works were censored for lesser amounts of time.

Burger's Daughter, published in June 1979, was banned one month later; the Publications Committee's Appeal Board reversed the censorship of Burger's Daughter six months later, determining that the book was too one-sided to be subversive.

July's People was also banned under apartheid, and faced censorship under the post-apartheid government as well.

One of her friends, Bettie du Toit, also had a powerful influence on her political thinking and her increasing opposition to the white supremacist government.

Jump:

The man in the story was disconnected to those he killed during the war; showing the white supremest view the main character had through out his work during the revolution.

Commrades:

Shows the white efforts during a time of black protest.

She refused to let her work be aired by the South African Broadcasting Corporation because it was controlled by the apartheid government

The Momment Before the Gun Went Off:

Told how a white man can kill a black boy accident and fear the repercussions during a time of ending apartheid

Once Upon a Time:

This story tells about counter apartheid in South Africa where after black were given rights and there was no racial segregation, whites were targets for attacks, rape, and burglery

Works

Some Nadine Gordimer Quotes

The House Gun

The Lying Days

(1998) told of the affects of apartheid and how life was different for the people of South Africa

her first novel (1953) was based off of her own life and if set in her home town of Springs

Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole life and perhaps you've made sense of one small area

Time is change; we measure its passing by how much things alter.

Truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is

The Soweto Uprising

(1974) written during the aftermath of the Soweto uprising

The Soweto Uprising, also known as 16 June, is a series of protests led by high school students in South Africa that began on the morning of 16 June 1976. Students from numerous Sowetan schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools. An estimated 20,000 students took part in the protests. The number of people who died is usually given as 176, with estimates of up to 700.[3][4][5] 16 June is now a public holiday, Youth Day, in South Africa, in remembrance of the events of 1976. Black high school students in Soweto protested against the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974, which forced all black schools to use Afrikaans and English in a 50–50 mix as languages of instruction.

Burger's Daughter

She was close friends with Nelson Mandela

Nadine Gordimer became a part of the anti-apartheid movement after her her friend Bettie du Tiot was arrested and the Sharpville massacre

In South Africa, she joined the African National Congress. Gordimer saw the ANC as the best hope for reversing South Africa's treatment of black citizens.

Gordimer said that, "Learning to write sent me falling, falling through the surface of the South African way of life," and her books made people learn a great deal about the white liberal sensibility. They said her work portrayed "extremely complicated personal and social relationships." And it was even said that her work, exemplified the concept of literature's "benefit to humanity" that Alfred Nobel had envisioned when he created the Prize.

Regularly took part in anti-apartheid demonstrations in South Africa, and traveled internationally speaking out against South African apartheid and discrimination and political repression

Nadine Gordimer

Work Cited

"Nadine Gordimer | South African History Online." Nadine Gordimer | South African History Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.

Nadine

"Nadine Gordimer Biography." -- Academy of Achievement. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.

"Nadine Gordimer." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Sept. 2014. Web. 19 Sept. 2014.

Born: November 20, 1923 in Springs, Transvaal, South Africa

she was able to witness government repression firsthand

Her house was raided by police who confiscated letters and diaries from a servants room she realized that the white minority weakens the rights of the black majority

"Soweto Uprising." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Sept. 2014. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.

"Nadine Gordimer." Thegaurdian.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.

Gordimer, Nadine. Jump and Other Stories. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1991. Print.