Nadine Gordimer: writer with a conscience

SOURCE: The fabric of dissent: public intellectuals in South Africa
OUTPUT TYPE: Chapter in Monograph
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2020
TITLE AUTHOR(S): J.Steyn Kotze
SOURCE EDITOR(S): V.Reddy, N.Bohler-Muller, G.Houston, M.Schoeman, H.Thuynsma
KEYWORDS: FICTION, GORDIMER, NADINE, INTELLIGENTSIA, POLITICS
DEPARTMENT: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 11958
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/15982
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/15982

If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.

Abstract

Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer is one of South Africa's greatest literary treasures. A self-proclaimed political novelist by accident of birth, Gordimer grew up in a home that was not particularly politically conscious. She described her father as 'uninterested' in the political realities of segregated South Africa, even though he was kind, but kindness is not the thing, is it?. Gordimer described her mother as caring towards others and troubled by the conditions under which blacks lived. But it would never have occurred to her that the answer was radical political change. Her political awakening came through literature. Reflecting on her years growing up, Gordimer felt that she had an odd and lonely childhood, and found escape in reading.

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