A Study On The Narrative Ethics Of Nadine Gordimer’s Novels

Nadine Gordimer(1923——2014)is one of most celebrated writers in the Rep ublic of South Africa.For a long time,she had been dedicated to writing about t he complicated relationships along people and society under the Racial Segregatio n(in Afrikaans " apartheid").Gordimer’s short stories which highly praised by th e the western critics brought her a promising debut in literary stage,and she won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1991 with excellent novels.Gordimer’s novels c over a wide wage of topics and profound themes.Meanwhile,the form of her no vels evolve continuously,combining the traditional critical realism with the moder nism to create a unique narrative style.Gordimer had been paying attention to so cial reality and human destiny,and actively exploring and thinking about all kinds of human ethical relations and orders,which demonstrated her overpowering sens e of humanist.This dissertation attempts to study the narrative ethics of Gordimer’s three no vels focusing on the transitional period.The transitional period refers to the perio d between the apartheid to post——apartheid,roughly ranging from the 1970s to the late 1980s.During this period,Gordimer created three masterpieces,including The Conservationist(1974),Burger’s daughter(1979)and July’s People(1981).The t hree novels pay attention to the ethical relations and orders in the family,race as well as all kinds of cultures during the transitional period.Gordimer discussed th e gender discrimination,racial discrimination,colonialism,cultural conflict and oth er major issues in these novels,portraying the South African people’s life and me ntal state when the racial segregation crumbling.It is a remarkable fact that the t hree novels represent the peak of Gordimer’s creations,marking her golden age in thought and art.Narrative ethics includes two inseparable parts,"ethics of story" and "ethics of narrating".Ethics of story aims to explore the ethical content of stories,includ ing the ethical themes,the presentation of ethical relations,and the possibility and construction of certain ethic.Ethics of narrating discusses how narration works,i n other words,how narrative process,narrative technique and narrative form revea l the ethical doubts,as well as the interactive relationships among the ethic consc iousness of authors,readers and narrators.Ethics of narrating pay attention to the rhetorical nature of narration,focusing on how writers influence readers’ thoughts and behaviors through narration,especially purifying their ethical emotions and m oral behaviors.The study of narrative ethics will stage from three perspectives:th e story——level,the narration——level and the reason.First the dissertation analy zes ethics of story in Gordimer’s novels,then analyzes ethics of narrating,and fi nally explores the reasons for the narrative ethics of Gordimer’s novels.This diss ertation mainly applies Ethics Literary Criticism and Narratology to analyze the n ovels,simultaneously combing with the Post——colonial Criticism,Feministic Criti cism,etc.The dissertation consists of five parts.The introduction summarizes the life and works of Gordimer,conducts review s on the previous Gordimer studies at home and abroad,and proposes the researc h content,method and significance of this study.The first chapter analyzes the ethics of story in Gordimer’s novels.The ethic s of story in the three novels focusing on transitional period including three narra tive dimensions:family,race and survival.The family ethic narration presents the deconstruction of the western patriarchal system.The racial ethic narration spares no effort to condemn the ethic order of "white supremacy" under the apartheid s ystem,and to explore the rationality of "the privilege of benevolent white people"to the maximum extent.Survival ethics focus on the culture conflicts during tran sition period,and the ethic dilemma of the black and white in South Africa.Chapter two analyzes the ethics of narrating in Gordimer’s novels.This part consists of narrative subject,narrative time and space,and narrative acceptance.S pecifically,the narrative subject mainly observes the ethical guiding effects produc ed by the narrator’s intervention and the transformation of narrative perspectives,while the narrative space and time mainly explores the ethical meaning and value behind the narrative time and space.At last,the perspective of narrative accepta nce tries to analyze the ethical communication and discussion among the author,n arrator and reader generated by the narrative blank and the dialogicality of Gordi mer’s novels.The last chapter mainly explores the reasons for the narrative ethics of Gordi mer’s novels.The dissertation sorts out Gordimer’s ethical thought and standpoint from two aspects:the social and historical reasons and personal reasons.The part of social and historical reasons mainly analyzes the origin of her ethical thought and the change of her ethical standpoint because of the apartheid system.Person al part focuses on the influence of Gordimer’s own life experience and her literar y views which shape her ethical values and narrative style.The conclusion summarizes the whole text,especially emphasizes the ethical core of Gordimer’s novels,orientation of altruism,and the post——modernity tend ency of her narrative ethics which advocating difference and pluralism,opposing h egemonism,and eliminating the centrality of the author.The deconstruction of sub ject dose not deny subjectivity of individual,only objects to the possessive subjec t and egoistic subject.The purpose of the assertion is against the cultural hegemo ny,distortion of interpersonal relationship and the alienation of people,only in thi s way can people obtain the real freedom and social justice.