A Spatial Study Of Nadine Gordimer’s Novels

Nadine Gordimer(1923-2014)was one of South Africa’s most famous female writers,who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991.Exploring the relationship between space and society has been an important direction in the interpretation of Gordimer’s novels.Taking the critical theories of space proposed by Henry Lefebvre,Michel Foucault and David Harvey as a basis,this essay considers space as a product of the workings of society.Focusing on the theme of space,it explores the conflict,displacement,reconstruction and meaning of space in Gordimer’s novel,and concludes that South Africa urgently needs to establish a new kind of space to consolidate social development after through the apartheid.The theoretical mode of thinking about space is able to focus on the political rights,racial contradictions,gender patterns and cultural values hidden behind the space,which is conducive to helping people to concerned about the marginal people and to restore the real South African society.In the change of spatial relationships,the South African people have accomplished the historical task of reconstructing a new spatial order and exploring their own identity.The thesis is divided into five main sections.The introductory section explains the reason and significance of this thesis,compares the current achievements of Gordimer’s studies at home and abroad,and introduces the object of the thesis,the ideas and the innovations of the thesis.The first chapter explores the construction and characteristics of South African space under the apartheid regime from three dimensions: social space,physical space and psychological space with the help of Lefebvre’s Trinity theory;the second chapter explores the tendency of dislocation of South African space in the spatial state of division and disorientation,and the essence of spatial displacement is the deconstruction of the original spatial relations in South Africa after policy changes and power loosening;the third chapter analyses Gordimer’s novels how to reconstructing space in the South African people reshape their self-awareness and search for self-identity through of body,family and culture in the dislocated space,and finally reconstruct a new spatial order in the fusion of culture and emotion;the fourth chapter explores the significance of space in Gordimer’s novels.Gordimer’s reflection on South Africa has a strong practical value and is a source of inspiration for Chinese intellectuals.