THE NOVELS OF NADINE GORDIMER (SOUTH AFRICA)

Nadine Gordimer is one of the few important, contemporary South African writers in the forefront of that scene. Her steady, insightful literary productivity is thoroughly germane in examining the intricate realities of South Africa's complex, unstable social atmosphere and environment. Nadine Gordimer's novels have deep political and moral implications. Although her characters epitomize South Africa's ordeal and future, her work is not only about South Africa: it reveals Gordimer's ability to plunge to the depths of human personality and to express those hidden feelings.; An analysis of the plot-structure, characters, and imagery of her eight novels published to date reveal her lyric qualities and her choice of epic theme--the condition of a nation. She is a committed author who feels a responsibility to make a moral statement. Consequently, she uses realism and traditional structures because she feels they are the best means of rendering the moral complexity of contemporary South African experience. However, Gordimer does employ creative, complex structures whenever it suits her purpose giving the reader in the private lives of her characters the anguished experience as a metaphor for her entire society.; Although Nadine Gordimer is not an avowed feminist and has never publically addressed the woman's question, many of her novels are stories told in women's terms, of an era and an ethos. Her novels span a period of nearly three decades when there were revolutionary changes in the status of women. These changes included restructuring of economic and domestic life as well as changes in love and sex. Her women are active, dynamic people, who use freedom creatively. The novels have both a psychological and political dimension. They depict women's thoughts and feelings in relation to the cultural forces and institutions which affect them.; Gordimer's novels demonstrate the philosophical forces that define and circumscribe the individual. Existential philosophy, particularly that put forth by Camus, is subtly present in the lives and experiences of Gordimer's characters. She has a deep conviction that not only do individual actions determine the outcome of wordly events, but that people are personally and individually responsible for the condition of the world in which they are living. In a conflict-ridden society such as South Africa both the discord and the relevance of ideology are intensified. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI...