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LElQ CtGRD \JENT THE INTERACTION OF RACE, GENDER AND CLASS IN A SELECTION OF SHORT STORIES BY NADINE GORDIMER by DELINA CHARLOITE VENTER Dissertation Submitted in Fulfi~f~lent of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English - RAND AFRIKAANS UNIVERSITY November, 1991 Supervisor: Prof. S. R. Gray ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the assistance of: Prof. S. R. Gray for his painstaking and valued guidance; the library personnel at the Rand Afrikaans University, particularly Ronel Smit; the financial assistance of the Centre for Science Development of the Human Sciences Research Council and the Rand Afrikaans University towards this research - opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the author and not necessarily to be attributed to either of these institutions; family and friends who supported this endeavour, particularly Wilbert. ABSTRACT 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 1949to Jump in 1991.However, most ofthe 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 ofthese 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. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter 1. A Polyglot Society: Race, gender and class in the early stories 17 Chapter Two. "Ah, Woe is Me": The trials of the early fifties 33 Chapter Three. "White friends and black friends": Progress in the late fifties 48 Chapter Four. Political activism and "woman's nonsense": The sixties 61 Chapter Five. The accommodation of "politics and the psyche": The early seventies 75 Chapter Six. "The dying white order": The mid-seventies onwards 86 CONCLUSION 103 BIBLIOGRAPHY 108 1 INTRODUCTION In keeping with the nature of this project, the aims of this introduction are varied and several. The first part of the introduction looks at Nadine Gordimer's writing career, the chronology of her short stories and previous work done in this area, the second part establishes the methodology used in this dissertation and the third part briefly examines Gordimer's use of South African history as reflected in the layout of the main body here. I To date, over the last fifty-one years, Gordimer has written approximately 126 short stories. By the time her first novel, The Lying Days, appears in 1953 Gordimer has already published thirty-four short stories in various magazines - the earliest appearing in 1937- as well as collected these in two publications, Face to Face (1949) and The Soft Voice of the Serpent (1952). Apart from three new stories, the last is essentially an American edition of the first, locally published, collection. Up to and including the 1965 collection of stories, Not for Publication, the appearance of a collection of stories can be seen to alternate with the appearance of a novel. Six Feet of the Country appears in 1956, followed by a novel, A World of Strangers, in 1958. Friday's Footprint appears in 1960 and is followed by the novel, Occasion for Loving, in 1963. After 1965 two novels appear before each subsequent publication of a new collection of short stories. Livingstone's Companions in 1971 is preceded by the novels, The Late Bourgeois World and A Guest of Honour, in 1961 and 1970 respectively. A Soldier's Embrace in 198Q..ls preceded by the novels, The Conservationist and Burger's Daughter,JI!JJ74-.Eng 1979. --------._---~--_ .._..---..._--- ._---~----, ...• -.. __ ... ~.-. __._._, ",.," ..• - .. _.,,--_ ..~ •.., .-.__ .__ ."-~ ._...--'_•.•..... _.- ........•.....__ .' -"--' .. _-~ respectively. The short stories are clearly as significant a part of Gordimer's substance -, •.._-_ ..--,.,.__ .._--'-~- as a writer as are the novels, and are as much a published presence as the novels. The disproportionate attention given the novels as opposed to the stories contributes greatly to obscure this fact. It is hoped that this dissertation will contribute to establishing the balance and to bringing the stories into their own. This dissertation examines Gordimer's short stories from the perspective of the --- ------~-~..._"'-_. -, - '~'~----"-'-'"'---'" interaction of race, gender and class and hopes to demonstrate not only that these are --~---------_. -,-'- - -"---~ _.._-_._-----"...~,. -, - .- _._---~---~-~- .•. _---_._--._~~---~. __._.-.,.- . ---~. __ .~ interlocking categories in the short stories, but also that their interaction can be seen as J_'_"- --~-' ._"._ - -_..,- .. _.,..~ -.-- ---..-.,.-,.----~ ..-~'-<'.--.---. ~ _~ ... .._. ._. ~._.__.._J.• _. ~ .. _ - - _ •. -.- 2 a developing concern across the oeuvre, fromo!!~,_story?!1fLQI1J.~period_tO-,anQJher. ----------~- ----,--._-~ ~- ._,- - .. .._. - - --- -... Gordimer has indeed remarked about her stories, '~.: ...tJ:I~!e,ares.ome.storiesLhavegQne" ~ ""-'=._c.~--«~~., --=-----------~~---·~- ~_. ~.< _._~ .__. .• ••,.".-,- .,.,-,".,," , ...• on writing, again and again, not so much because the themes are obsessional but because =-~---"""'--~------"-"<-~----"~--;-'~'""._'~~"-""-'-"'-"-., I found other ways to take hold of them.... = I;-or:cter-'to'O-establish-Gordlmer's'developmental treatment of the interlocking nature of the categories of race, gender and class it has been necessary to establish a bibliography of the short stories. This has been compiled according to the dates of individual publication rather than according to the publication dates of collections, because not only does this contextualize a story as precisely as possible, but it also avoids possible fallacies. For example, in her dissertation, Karen Lazar assumes some significance, in terms of Gordimer's short story writing, for the six year break between the publication of Not for Publication in 1965 and Livingstone's Companions in 1971 (see her dissertation, p. 74). Although these two collections are published sixyears apart, the last story taken up in Not for Publication appeared in the Kenyon Review in 1965 and the earliest written story to be taken up in Livingstone's Companions appeared in the NewYorker in 1966. Thus the sixyear break between these collections is an artificial one and does not imply a break in Gordimer's short story output at all. The bibliography here (see pp. 108-113) started essentially as a composite of earlier bibliographies on Gordimer: Racilia J. Nell's 1964 bibliography, John Cooke's in 1979 and Robert Green's in 1985.The last two bibliographies were both published in the Bulletin of Bibliography. Other sources occasionally helped to fill out the bibliography here, all data being subject to my own checking. This bibliography also functions as a record of stories which have not been taken up in collections, as