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This doctoral project is an analytical study of South African writer, Nadine Gordimer's fiction produced from 1949 to 1994. She presents a theme similar to the post-colonial critic, Homi Bhabha's notion of borderland which he propounds as a place of creativity and cultural hybridity in his work The Location of Culture (1994). The "borderland" in Gordimer's fiction acts as a liminal space and becomes a connective tissue in her characters' lives. It emerges in the form of crossing physical frontiers and mental barriers which existed in South African society. Through moments of transition, Gordimer makes her characters aware of a liberal person's marginal position, between the reactionary colonial past and the "inbetween-ness" of the borderland in radical future of South Africa. Along with this introductory background, Chapter One establishes the dual working of physical and psychological processes through which Gordimer develops the theme of "borderland" in her fiction. The subsequent three chapters focus on the variety in the presentation of "borderland" encounters in her fiction written before and after Sharpeville (1960). The thesis concludes that the dual development of physical and psychological processes is a central narrative strategy which determines a link between chronology and the presentation of "borderland" in Gordimer's fiction.

Thesis (B.A.Hons.1978) - Dept. of History, University of Adelaide.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Teoria Literária e Literaturas, 2007. / Submitted by wesley oliveira leite (leite.wesley@yahoo.com.br) on 2009-12-08T17:34:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_DanielledeLunaeSilva.pdf: 572794 bytes, checksum: be881fdab8dec719ca13fa01e7b8ab5f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Lucila Saraiva(lucilasaraiva1@gmail.com) on 2010-01-06T22:47:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_DanielledeLunaeSilva.pdf: 572794 bytes, checksum: be881fdab8dec719ca13fa01e7b8ab5f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2010-01-06T22:47:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_DanielledeLunaeSilva.pdf: 572794 bytes, checksum: be881fdab8dec719ca13fa01e7b8ab5f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Este estudo teve como objetivo realizar uma leitura comparada entre duas obras literárias escritas por mulheres em fins do século XX: Amada, da afro-americana Toni Morrison, e Ninguém para me acompanhar, da sul-africana Nadine Gordimer. Os pressupostos teóricos que fundamentaram nossa análise consistem nos estudos sobre pós-colonialismo e literatura de Homi Bhabha, Terry Eagleton, Stuart Hall, Ashcroft, Grifiths & Tiffin e Edward Said. Acerca de questões de gênero e etnia, utilizamos os trabalhos de Elaine Showalter, Barbara Christian, Mae Gwendolyn Henderson, bell hooks, Hazel Carby, Kari Winter, Deborah White, Angela Davis, Paul Gilroy, entre outros. Procuramos identificar e analisar as similaridades e diferenças nas representações de gênero e etnia nas duas obras, além de relacioná-las a outros aspectos pertinentes à nossa pesquisa, tais como diáspora, pós-colonialismo e literatura comparada. Tanto Amada quanto NPMA encenam uma tentativa de superação de diversos obstáculos comuns às duas protagonistas, relacionados à desconstrução de um passado colonial e racista. O pertencimento ao mesmo gênero fez com que as duas heroínas enfrentassem desafios semelhantes no que tange à luta contra o sexismo e a subversão da ordem patriarcal. Dessa forma, podemos afirmar que elas compartilham da necessidade de libertação, transformação e reconstrução de suas identidades e vidas, assim como do desejo de desfazer-se de um passado terrível. Contudo, é inegável que as estratégias de subversão e transgressão utilizadas por essas duas mulheres são profundamente marcadas pela diferença étnica entre as protagonistas, diferença que, igualmente, determinou a maneira como foram afetadas pelo horror do racismo. _____________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / This research aimed at comparing two novels written by female writers in the end of the twentieth century: Beloved, by the Afro-American writer Toni Morrison and None to accompany me, by the South-African artist Nadine Gordimer. Our theoretical framework consists of the studies on post-colonialism and literature by Homi Bhabha, Terry Eagleton, Stuart Hall, Ashcroft, Grifiths & Tiffin and Edward Said. Concerning gender and ethnicity, the studies developed by Elaine Showalter, Barbara Christian, Mae Gwendolyn Henderson, bell hooks, Hazel Carby, Kari Winter, Deborah White, Angela Davis, Paul Gilroy, among others, were essential to our analysis We tried to identify and analyze the similarities and differences in the representations of gender and ethnicity in the two narratives, as well as relate them to other relevant aspects to our study, such as diaspora, post-colonialism and compared literature. Both Beloved and None to accompany me depict an attempt to overcome several obstacles faced by the two protagonists related to the deconstruction of a colonial and racist past. Belonging to the same gender, both heroines faced similar challenges concerning the struggle against sexism and subversion of the patriarchal order. Thus, we can affirm that they share the need to transform and reconstruct their lives and identities, as well as the desire to undo a terrible past. However, it is undeniable that the strategies of subversion and transgression employed by these women are deeply marked by the difference in their ethnic groups, a difference that determined the way they were affected by the horror of racism.

M.A. (English) / This study approaches a much neglected area, not only of English literary research in South Africa generally, but also more specifically of Nadine Gordimer's writing career. Over the last fifty-one years Gordimer has produced approximately 126 short stories. These have variously been taken up in twelve collections, ranging from Face to Face in 1949 to Jump in 1991.However, most of the recognition she has received pertains to her novels which are frequently praised for their historical awareness and their commitment to the disfranchised in South Africa. Yet the short stories are a significant part of Gordimer's output - altogether eight original collections of short stories exist, as compared to ten novels. Nor are the short stories of any less historical significance.Even a cursory glance at the periodization of the stories as reflected in this dissertation unquestionably reveals a developing historical perspective in Gordimer's short fiction. What is most remarkable about this unfolding perspective is Gordimer's ability from time to time in the stories to break out of the limitations imposed on her consciousness by her position in South African society as a white, upper middle-class woman. The most important reason for the dearth of research on the historical consciousness in Gordimer's short fiction seems to be the choice of literary-critical approaches adopted in previous works. Broadly these may be classified as either formalist or new critical. Given the importance to these approaches of the autonomy of the text vis-a-vis the life history of the authoress or the wider socio-political environment within which the work exists, it is not surprising that these works have rather limited their focus to such aspects as theme, structure, short story development and imagery. By examining the interaction of race, gender and class in Gordimer's short stories this dissertation pins its exploration of the developing historical consciousness of these texts not only to specific issues, but to issues with which Gordimer clearly concerns herself. This dissertation therefore asserts that the structures of race, gender and class are indeed pertinently explored in the short stories, not only individually but often with an understanding of their intertwined aspect, and that using this approach a more subtle and appropriate reading of the stories and of their development may emerge.

Cette thèse étudie le thème du mariage interculturel et des identités hybrides de personnages dans The Pickup (2001) de Nadine Gordimer, The Translator (1999) de Leila Aboulela et A Mighty Collision of Two Worlds (2002) de Safi Abdi. L’étude cherche à explorer comment les identités culturelles des protagonistes changent lorsqu’ils se marient avec une personne d’une culture différente des leurs et qu’ils rencontrent de nouvelles traditions et de nouvelles croyances. La théorie de l’hybridité développée par Homi Bhabha et par d’autres théoriciens de l’hybridité peut être un outil pertinent pour analyser l’identité des personnages. Bhabha soutient que ceux qui traversent les cultures vivent dans un “in-between space” ou un “third space,” fluctuant entre leur culture d’origine et leur culture d’accueil. Cependant, les conclusions de l’étude montrent que ces personnages de fiction présentent des cas qui n’ont pas été explorés par les théoriciens de l’hybridité. On s’aperçoit d’autre part, que plusieurs facteurs de nature culturelle, religieuse, personnelle ou sociale influencent les protagonistes dans les romans : soit ils leur identité hybride s’affirme, soit ils conservent la façon de vivre de leur pays d’origine. On remarque aussi que les mariages interculturels et l’identité hybride sont liés entre eux. Le mariage interculturel peut être à la fois la manifestation de l’hybridité, et dans ce cas il est perçu comme une affirmation du vécu hybride servant du même coup de moyen d’aller vers l’hybridité. Contrairement à ce à quoi on pourrait s’attendre, on observe que parfois les relations interculturelles entraînent une réaction anti-hybride / This dissertation studies the subject of cross-cultural marriage and hybrid identities of characters in Nadine Gordimer’s The Pickup (2001), Leila Aboulela’s The Translator (1999), and Safi Abdi’s A Mighty Collision of two Worlds (2002). The study seeks to find out how the cultural identities of the protagonists in the novels change when they marry across cultures and face new traditions and beliefs. Hybridity theory, which is developed by Homi Bhabha and other hybridity theorists, can be a relevant tool for analysis of the characters’ identities. Bhabha contends that those who cross cultures live in an “in-between space” or “third space” in which they oscillate between their native culture and the host culture. However, results show that fictional characters present cases which have not been explored by hybridity theorists. In addition, it is stressed that various factors of a cultural, religious, personal, and social nature affect the protagonists in the novels to either develop a hybrid identity or maintain their native way of life. It is also found that cross-cultural marriage and hybridity are correlated. The former can be both a manifestation of hybridity, where the protagonists’ cross-cultural marriage is seen as an assertion of their hybrid experience, and as a means to hybridity. Contrary to expectations, it is observed that cross-cultural relationships lead to an anti-hybrid reaction

Thesis (DLitt (English))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / The dissertation focuses on literary representation of female characters in selected novels by three particular South African writers working within the transitional phase (from the formal ending of apartheid up to the present) of South African history. By means of textual analysis, the study investigates how the representation of numerous female characters in these texts reflects on and reflects the sector of South African society that forms the social setting of each text. This thesis explores the portrayal of female characters in selected fictional works by examining the ways in which the novelists Mandla Langa, Zakes Mda (both of them black and male writers) and Nadine Gordimer (a white and female novelist) characterise women in novels depicting this adapting society. In scrutinising these texts of the transition period, the thesis writer employs detailed individual delineation of female characters, to some extent by means of a comparative approach, with emphasis on parallels between as well as differences among the abovementioned authors’ ways of describing South African women’s circumstances and responses to their social predicaments. In this study literary representations of women are examined in order to evaluate the effects of social and cultural transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. This is done by analysing these authors’ portrayals of women’s circumstances both in the private and public spheres. The thesis therefore contributes to the movement towards a greater recognition of women’s crucial, catalytic function in the achievement of social development and delineates these authors’ expressed awareness of many women’s actual direct involvement in the struggle against all forms of discrimination in society. This research project has been undertaken as an opportunity to investigate the different qualities and types of conduct attributed to female characters in ten selected novels of the transition, on the assumption that the texts reflect something of the way women are perceived and are playing new roles in a changing society. In studying how three significant ‘post-apartheid’ authors depict women affecting and affected by the social conditions of this period, the thesis traces the way the focus of more recent South African writing has shifted from an apartheid-era preoccupation with racial-political issues towards the depiction of private and public, rural and urban social and gender roles available to some contemporary South African women – and of those factors still constraining some other women. Taking in these authors’ portrayals of female political activism and leadership, the thesis also balances previous preoccupation (in South African English literature) with depictions of male political activity.

Cette étude porte sur le corps noir et l'intersubjectivité dans Ceux de July de Nadine Gordimer (1981), Tar Baby de Toni Morrison (1981) et Tu t'appelleras Tanga de Calixthe Beyala (1988). Dans chacun des récits, la représentation du corps noir est le pivot des relations qui unit les personnages noirs et blancs. L'évolution des différentes trames narratives dépend de la réinscription permanente de la figure du Noir dans les rapports intersubjectifs entre les Noirs et Blancs. Le premier objectif de ce mémoire de maîtrise est donc d'exposer la mise en scène littéraire de cette figure, avant tout, discursive, à travers les déplacements poétiques qu'effectue chacune des auteures. Cette analyse se fait principalement à partir de trois approches: organique, narratologique et sémiologique. Elle met aussi à contribution certaines notions relatives à la subjectivité dans l'énonciation. D'une part, cette analyse illustre les moyens par lesquels les personnages parviennent à construire des dichotomies qui, de prime abord, sont présentées comme étant indépassables à travers une série d'espaces où les différences sont démultipliées. D'autre part, ce travail de mémoire cherche à rendre compte de la nature intimement fictionnelle et sociale des corps, tout en démontrant une différence notoire de l'articulation du corps noir constamment chargé d'un « poids » métaphorique péjoratif qui efface le sujet. À travers leur écriture, les trois auteures parviennent à mettre en évidence les lieux communs de la représentation du corps noir, tout en réinscrivant ces derniers dans une polysémie déroutante et éclairante sur les communautés de sens qui enferment ou qui ouvrent les sujets sur eux-mêmes et sur les autres. En ce sens, les trois microcosmes déconstruisent -chacun dans son contexte respectif -la représentation du Noir. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Figure du Noir, Corporéité, Intersubjectivité, Stéréotype, Altérité, Roman, Mythe.

The changing social consciousness in South Africa during the twentieth century falls within a political-historical framework of events: amongst others, World Wars I and II; the institution of the Apartheid Laws in 1948; the declaration of a South African Republic in 1960; Nelson Mandela's release in 1992. The literary social consciousness of Abrahams, Paton, Mphahlele and Gordimer spans the time before and after 1948. Their novels reflect the changing reality of a country whose racial and social problems both pre-date and will outlive the apartheid ideology. These and other novelists' changing social consciousness is an indication of the development of attitudes and reactions to issues which have their roots in the human and in the economic spheres, as well as in the political, cultural and religious. Their work interprets the history and the change in the South African social consciousness, and also gives some indication of a possible future vision. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

Thesis (MA) -- Stellenbosch University, 1986. / No Abstract Avcailable