DOCSLIB.ORG

Cores of South Africans' (Abrahams: 1979:16)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Cores of South Africans' (Abrahams: 1979:16) -c, ·;4,;_;« ~3,0;).Ql~"') CHANGING SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN ENGLISH NOVEL AFTER WORLD WAR II, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO PETER ABRAHAMS, ALAN PATON, ES'KIA MPHAHLELE AND NADINE GORDIMER by Karin Ilona Mary Paasche Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the subject ENGLISH at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA Supervisor: Dr D.W. Lloyd Joint Supervisor: Prof. E. Pereira PRETORIA November 1992 CONTENTS Page SUMMARY PREFACE 11 INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter l: THE SOUTH AFRICAN ENGLISH NOVEL 13 BEFORE WORLD WAR II: The Emergence of Predominant themes in South African English Fiction Chapter 2: PETER ABRAHAMS: Exile and Freedom 31 Chapter 3: ALAN PATON: The Liberal Dilemma - 51 before and after 1948 Chapter 4: ES'KIA MPHAHLELE: A Protest Writer 71 Returns from Exile Chapter 5: NADINE GORDIMER: The Alienated 91 Liberal Chapter 6: THE END OF AN ERA or THE BEGINNING 113 OF A NEW ONE? SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 124 INDEX OF AUTHORS 136 SUMMARY 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. _, - PREFACE Objectivity is one of the chief criteria of academic integrity and discipline. However, as individuals we are shaped by our life experiences and our own personal beliefs and philosophies. While we should not allow these unduly to affect our academic perceptions, they give our contribution to research its unique character. Thus, this thesis was written from the perspective of one who has tried hard to understand the complexity, tragedy and challenge of the South African situation, and whose heart has often echoed Guy Butler's 'A Prayer for all my Countrymen': ... dear God, ordain such deeds be done, such words be said, that men will praise Your image yet when all these terrors and hates are dead •.. Born a white South African of German parents, I have at various times been part of the English, Afrikaans, 'Coloured', Venda, Zulu, Xhosa and urban black communities. Not only have I lived within these different communities, I also have deep personal and family ties within each of them. This has given me a 'different' perspective on life. It has, however, also often made it very difficult for me to 'define' myself. While I am in a very real sense a member of each of these societies, and each has. become part of my being, I do not belong to any of them. I have, consequently, often felt torn apart in my own person by the conflict that separates them from one another. My reading of South African literature and its critics has, further, largely been determined by my own 'radical' Christian view of life. This approach sees in what is happening in South Africa a marvellous challenge, an opportunity for all of us to help create a society which will be able to acknowledge its common humanity, yet celebrate its diversity. Such an outlook presupposes, however, that it will only be possible to meet this challenge if we accept that in the eyes of God none of us is guiltless. We somehow all stand condemned by our words and actions and, at times, by our inability or unwillingness to act. My -ii- personal conviction, that there is none amongst us who is 'without sin', that we all share responsibility for the present situation, has determined my own definition of objectivity and makes it difficult for me to support any particular ideology. I have, furthermore, had to accept my own guilt, to acknowledge that I too have often remained silent, and have been neither loving nor compassionate, not merely because 'the situation' was too big for me, but because I could find many good reasons why I should not speak out, and, perhaps, because I preferred not to give up my privileged position. This thesis is an attempt to comprehend some of the things that have hurt and separated us. It is written in the hope that there will come a day of real reconciliation, love and understanding, not just a superficial truce. While the thesis touches on deeply emotional issues, it attempts not to be judgemental. It is part of an endeavour to understand and thereby help bring about a therapeutic process in which we can really look at ourselves and each other and try to put right what is wrong. ************ This MA thesis is dedicated to all those who have prayed for and with me. My special thanks go to the English Department of the University of South Africa, and in particular to Professor Ernest Pereira. A special word of thanks and appreciation is due to Dr David Lloyd who has always made himself available, who has given more than was asked of him, and who has accompanied me through the very difficult process of putting my thoughts and feelings on paper. Then there is a special word of thanks to people who in a particular way have been present during the writing of this thesis: Maureen Williams and Baba Nxala, faithful prayer partners through many years; Sandra Lee, Natacha LaGuardia and Carol Miele, loving friends and fellow pilgrims; Father Franz Baumann, a beloved friend and mentor, whose daily prayers and Masses have accompanied me through -iii- both dark and joyful days; Msgr. Walter Niebrzydowski who has been present as I stumble toward my own changing consciousness, who has refused to let me give up, and who once reminded me that God hears 'the cry of the poor', and it is up to us, as individuals and as collectivities to respond with generosity and love. My own thoughts and feelings towards a troubled South Africa are best summed up by the words of Peter Scagnelli, a prayer I hope will become real for each one of us: Daylight fades in days when deathless Light has robbed earth's night of fear On the edge of all our twilights Easter's angels shall appear; When hearts broken by believing count their faith and hope as dead, Christ shall meet them in each other and in breaking of the bread. Wondrous mystery of love's giving! Our forgiving Father's Son. Crushed in sorrow, raised to glory, Death had conquered; life has won! Once in silence he submitted, Now earth sings to him, our King; Fear will ever flee defeated When a heart in love can sing! 0 Lord Jesus, risen Saviour, Hear our joyful hymn of praise; Grant a season of salvation, Peace and joy these Easter days, To our Father and the Spirit Equal praises ever be; Born again, we sing his goodness Now and through eternity. -ill· INTRODUCTION There is today in the world a general desire for a literature which could penetrate with its beam deep into the tangled jungle of our time (Lukacs1: 1972:19). Even at a time when the dramatic events in South Africa are catching the imagination of so many people worldwide, the South African situation with its multitude of conflicts seems to defy all attempts at definition. Thus, as the world watches the struggle taking place in South African society, more and more people in and outside the country are looking to South African English literature to make some sense of a situation characterised by anomalies which only the very naive and simplistic would define merely in terms of a cause and effect relationship vis-a-vis current political reality. Through the novel of social purpose, the four novelists discussed here have, in their own way, committed themselves to dealing with conflicts and contradictions inherent in South African society2. Often their perception has been severely limited by a South African reality which 'effectively prevents any real identification of the writer with his society as a whole' (Gordimer: 1976:11~. Yet the social realism each has aspired to, in some way 'offers a clear and graspable conception of the relationship between individuals and their society' (Gakwandi: 1977:127). In their writing they have attempted to meet one of the most important criteria of the novel of social purpose: the reading public's need 'to deal with ad hoc issues' (Partridge: 1956:59), and the wish of individuals to define and understand themselves within their social reality. The nature of their subject material, one of its primary concerns being inter-racial relationships in South Africa, defines these novelists as social critics rather than simply as entertainers. Consequently, their works will, inevitably, be 'treated retrospectively as social or literary "documents"' (Gross: 1980:vii). H, however, their novels are also to be viewed as part of a body of literature relevant beyond the immediate social context, they should 'challenge the whole of mankind' (Sartre: 1974:26) and not become mere vehicles for political or other propaganda which, like reportage or documentary and statistical evidence, is more suited to sociological treatises.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Origen De La Enfermería En El Cine: El Género Histórico-Documental Y Biográfico
    ORIGEN DE LA ENFERMERÍA EN EL CINE: EL GÉNERO HISTÓRICO- DOCUMENTAL Y BIOGRÁFICO José Siles González Universidad de Alicante INTRODUCCIÓN El cine y las películas constituyen una herramienta fundamental para transmitir los fe- nómenos humanos en toda su complejidad, sin renunciar a ninguna de las dimensiones que intervienen en los acontecimientos. Ya Terencio y Shakespeare formularon la famosa frase: «Nada de lo humano me es ajeno». La enfermedad, el dolor, la muerte forman parte de la na- turaleza humana y, más tarde o temprano, de una u otro forma, acaban arribando a la existen- cia de todos los seres humanos que experimentan sus vivencias de forma tan diversa como compleja; es decir, mediante un determinado tipo de estética experiencial. Al cine, nada de lo humano le es ajeno y, particularmente, aquellos fenómenos vinculados a situaciones que producen cambios notables en quienes las viven (enfermedades, dolencias, pérdidas, etc.). Carper (1999) incluyó la dimensión estética como la cuarta integrante de los cuatro niveles del conocimiento enfermero (empírico-científico, ético, personal y estético). Otros autores desarrollaron modelos basándose en estos diferentes patrones y reinterpretando el conoci- miento estético desde las necesidades tanto del paciente como de la práctica profesional de enfermería partiendo de la base de la pertinencia de la estética ante situaciones –como el sufrimiento ante la enfermedad– donde el pensamiento subjetivo adquiere una gran intensi- dad (Chinn, 1994). Debido a su potencial de configuración ideológica (Lebel, 1973), el cine ha desempeña- do un papel determinante en el desarrollo de clichés, estereotipos y en una amplia gama de modelado de todos aquellos asuntos que forman parte de la realidad histórica.
    [Show full text]
  • Fraser, C, 2018.Pdf
    The PIT: A YA Response to Miltonic Ideas of the Fall in Romantic Literature Callum Fraser Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2018 Department of English Language, Literature and Linguistics Newcastle University i ii Abstract This project consists of a Young Adult novel — The PIT — and an accompanying critical component, titled Miltonic Ideas of the Fall in Romantic Literature. The novel follows the story of a teenage boy, Jack, a naturally talented artist struggling to understand his place in a dystopian future society that only values ‘productive’ work and regards art as worthless. Throughout the novel, we see Jack undergo a ‘coming of age’, where he moves from being an essentially passive character to one empowered with a sense of courage and a clearer sense of his own identity. Throughout this process we see him re-evaluate his understanding of friendship, love, and loyalty to authority. The critical component of the thesis explores the influence of John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, on a range of Romantic writers. Specifically, the critical work examines the way in which these Romantic writers use the Fall, and the notion of ‘falleness’ — as envisioned in Paradise Lost — as a model for writing about their roles as poets/writers in periods of political turmoil, such as the aftermath of the French Revolution, and the cultural transition between what we now regard as the Romantic and Victorian periods. The thesis’s ‘bridging chapter’ explores the connection between these two components. It discusses how the conflicted poet figures and divided narratives discussed in the critical component provide a model for my own novel’s exploration of adolescent growth within a society that seeks to restrict imaginative freedom.
    [Show full text]
  • Africa in the Fiction of Nadine Gordimer
    Africa in the Fiction of Nadine Gordimer RICHARD I. SMYER JL^^ÍADINE GORDIMER has pointed out that for modern man Africa has come to represent an inner condition — an aspect of his "spiritual consciousness," a "state of regeneration," and an "untapped source" of energy within himself toward which he may be seeking "the dangerous way back." Inspiring hope as well as uncertainty, "this Africa is... only a new name for an old idea -— man's deep feeling that he must lose himself in order to find himself."1 Gordimer has described herself as a "romantic struggling with reality,"2 and it is Gordimer the romantic who is aware of Western man's longing to venture beyond the limits of his own world, beyond his conscious identity, in search of a vital centre, a primal wholeness and energy, within the Africa within his own psyche. Gordimer is, however, enough of a realist to know that those who have been drawn to the continent often have been more intent on asserting the permanence of a familiar racial and cultural identity — for Western man, his identity as master. In South Africa the result has been apartheid, which is only one aspect of what Gordimer has noted as the fragmentation of a society lacking a common language or history and unified neither by ties of ethnic kinship nor by a shared social or political ideology.3 The polarity of the romantic quest for a psychologically re• generative wholeness and the realistic recognition of diversity and isolation may reflect a deep structure of the South African experi• ence.
    [Show full text]
  • Brief History of English and American Literature
    Brief History of English and American Literature Henry A. Beers Brief History of English and American Literature Table of Contents Brief History of English and American Literature..........................................................................................1 Henry A. Beers.........................................................................................................................................3 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................6 PREFACE................................................................................................................................................9 CHAPTER I. FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER....................................................................11 CHAPTER II. FROM CHAUCER TO SPENSER................................................................................22 CHAPTER III. THE AGE OF SHAKSPERE.......................................................................................34 CHAPTER IV. THE AGE OF MILTON..............................................................................................50 CHAPTER V. FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE DEATH OF POPE........................................63 CHAPTER VI. FROM THE DEATH OF POPE TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION........................73 CHAPTER VII. FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE DEATH OF SCOTT....................83 CHAPTER VIII. FROM THE DEATH OF SCOTT TO THE PRESENT TIME.................................98 CHAPTER
    [Show full text]
  • Race and Class Struggle in Peter Abrahams' Mine
    PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH UNIVERSITY OF MOHAMED BOUDIAF - M’SILA FACULTY OF LETTERS AND LANGUAGES DOMAIN: FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH STREAM: ENGLISH LANGUAGE N°:……………………………………….. OPTION: LITERATURE AND CIVILIZATION Race and Class Struggle in Peter Abrahams’ Mine Boy A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master Degree in Literature and Civilization Candidates: Supervised by: Smail REZIKI Miss Khaoula REBAHI Rania BOUSSALEM Board of Examiners Miss Sabah Ferrah University of M’sila Chairperson Miss Khaoula REBAHI University of M‟sila Supervisor Mrs Karima Laouidji University of M‟sila Examiner Academic Year: 2017-2018 Dedication Praise and prayer to Allah and peace be upon his Messenger Mohamed. I dedicate this work To my parents ..where life begins.. and love never ends To my brothers and sisters .. who held me when i feel lost .. the support that stood by me at any cost To my nieces and nephews .. here together or miles apart .. they always stay in my heart To all my family To my friends .. who will always care .. love, respect, and trust are things we share To my partner .. who has given me strength to carry on .. and has offered me hand to hold on Smail Taieb REZIKI i Dedication I dedicate this work To my mother.. who gave me life and became my dearest .. my greatest teacher of compassion, love, she is simply the best To my father.. I thought to myself, that space is too small.. to write down who is he, to cover it all.
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliographie Sur Jump, Nadine Gordimer, SAES Agrégation Session 2019, Option A
    Bibliographie sur Jump, Nadine Gordimer, SAES agrégation session 2019, option A Fiona McCann (Lille 3-IUF) et Kerry-Jane Wallart (Sorbonne Université), avec l’aide de Mathilde Rogez (Toulouse-Jean Jaurès) 1. Édition au programme Nadine Gordimer, Jump (1990). London: Vintage, 1991. 2. Autres œuvres de Nadine Gordimer Nouvelles Face to Face. Johannesburg: Silver Leaf Books, 1949. The Soft Voice of the Serpent. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1952. Six Feet of the Country. London: Gollancz, 1956. Friday's Footprint. London: Gollancz, 1960. Not for Publication. London: Gollancz, 1965. Livingstone's Companions. London: Jonathan Cape, 1971. Some Monday for Sure. London: Heinemann, 1976. A Soldier's Embrace. London: Jonathan Cape, 1980. Something Out There. London: Jonathan Cape, 1984. A Correspondence Course and Other Stories. Eurographica, 1986. Crimes of Conscience: Selected Short Stories. London: Heinemann, 1991. Why Haven't You Written?: Selected Stories 1950-1972. London: Penguin Books, 1992. Harald, Claudia and Their Son Duncan. London: Bloomsbury, 1996. Loot. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black. London: Bloomsbury, 2007. *Life Times: Stories 1952-2007. New York: Penguin, 2011. Romans The Lying Days. London: Gollancz, 1953. A World of Strangers. London: Gollancz, 1958. Occasion for Loving. London: Gollancz, 1963. The Late Bourgeois World. London: Gollancz, 1966. A Guest of Honour. New York: Viking Press, 1970 / London: Jonathan Cape, 1971. *The Conservationist. London: Jonathan Cape, 1974. *Burger's Daughter. London: Jonathan Cape, 1979. **July's People. London: Jonathan Cape, 1981. A Sport of Nature. London: Jonathan Cape, 1987. My Son's Story. London: Bloomsbury, 1990. None to Accompany Me.
    [Show full text]
  • Apocalypticism in Wagner's Ring by Woodrow Steinken BA, New York
    Title Page Everything That Is, Ends: Apocalypticism in Wagner’s Ring by Woodrow Steinken BA, New York University, 2015 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 2018 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2021 Committee Page UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Woodrow Steinken It was defended on March 23, 2021 and approved by James Cassaro, Professor, Music Adriana Helbig, Associate Professor, Music David Levin, Professor, Germanic Studies Dan Wang, Assistant Professor, Music Dissertation Director: Olivia Bloechl Professor, Music ii Copyright © by Woodrow Steinken 2021 iii Abstract Everything That Is, Ends: Apocalypticism in Wagner’s Ring Woodrow Steinken, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2021 This dissertation traces the history of apocalypticism, broadly conceived, and its realization on the operatic stage by Richard Wagner and those who have adapted his works since the late nineteenth century. I argue that Wagner’s cycle of four operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen (1876), presents colloquial conceptions of time, space, and nature via supernatural, divine characters who often frame the world in terms of non-rational metaphysics. Primary among these minor roles is Erda, the personification of the primordial earth. Erda’s character prophesies the end of the world in Das Rheingold, a prophecy undone later in Siegfried by Erda’s primary interlocutor and chief of the gods, Wotan. I argue that Erda’s role changes in various stage productions of the Ring, and these changes bespeak a shifting attachment between humanity, the earth, and its imagined apocalyptic demise.
    [Show full text]
  • DEVELOPING a HAUNTOLOGY of the BLACK BODY Kashif Jerome
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository SPECTERS AND SPOOKS: DEVELOPING A HAUNTOLOGY OF THE BLACK BODY Kashif Jerome Powell, MA A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Department of Communication Studies. Chapel Hill 2014 Approved by: Renee Alexander-Craft Ashley Lucas Della Pollock Alvaro Reyes Eric King Watts © 2014 Kashif Jerome Powell ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Kashif Jerome Powell: Specters and Spooks: Developing a Hauntology of The Black Body (Under the direction of Dr. Renee Alexander-Craft) This dissertation utilizes theories of embodiment and performance to develop a “hauntology of blackness,” which investigates imaginative sites of death constructed through the historical, social, and performative facets of institutional slavery in the United States to theorize notions of blackness and the black body. I argue that the relationship between the black body and death have conjured a death-driven specter that manifest historically, performatively, visually, and phenomenally as blackness. The rise and continual return of this “specter of blackness” positions the black body in the United States as a body “haunted” by its own biological and phenotypical disposition. Placing the theory of Jacques Derrida and Frantz Fanon in conversation with scholars such as Avery Gordon, Saidiya Hartman, Toni Morrison, and others, I evoke the language of haunting to consider the profound effect the relationship between the black body and death has had on ontological, psychoanalytic, and phenomenological understandings of blackness within post-modernity.
    [Show full text]
  • Chronological Table of Productions at the Theatre Royal
    1 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF PRODUCTIONS AT THE THEATRE ROYAL 1884 17 - 20 December Richelieu 22 - 24 December Belphegor The Loan of a Lover 26 December-9 Jan Proof 1885 10 January The Lady of Lyons 12 - 17 January The Duke’s Motto 19 - 21 January East Lynne 22 - 23 January Leah 24 - 30 January Richard III 31 January The Stranger Robert Macaire 2 - 6 February Ambition (Catherine Howard) 7 February William Tell East Lynne 9 - 21 February Never Too Late to Mend 23 - 28 February Drink 2 - 4 March Macbeth 5-7 March Hamlet 9 - 14 March The Danites 16 - 20 March Streets of London 21 March Don Caezar de Bazan Black Eyed Susan 23 - 25 March The Octoroo 26 - 27 March The Merchant of Venice The Royalist and the Republican 28 March The Bells Black Eyed Susan 30 March - 1 April The Colleen Bawn 2 April Ingomar The Watermen 3 April CLOSED (GOOD FRIDAY) 4 April Othello 6 - 11 April Mazeppa The Little Pest 13 - 14 April Othello 15 - 16 April Belphegor 17 April Ingomar 18 April Pizarro Cartouche 20 - 22 April Ticket of Leave Man 23 April The Honeymoon Withered Leaves 24 April Ticket of Leave Man 25 April - 1 May Forsaken 2 May The Beggar’s Petition Forsaken (two acts) 4 - 5 May Rob Roy 2 6 May The Shaughraun 7 May Don Caesar de Bazan 8 May The Shaughraun 9 May The Devil in Paris Poor Joe 11 May Chevalier St George 12 May Richelieu 13 May Hamlet 14 May Romeo and Juliet 15 May Richard III 16 May Romeo and Juliet 18 - 20 May My Comrade 21 May Arra-na-pogue 22 May My Comrade 23 - 30 May Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1 - 13 June My Sweetheart 15 - 20 June Mardo 22 June -
    [Show full text]
  • Africana the Long Eye of History: Four Autobiographical Texts by Peter Abrahams
    UNIVERSITY OFTHEWITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG HISTORY WORKSHOP STRUCTURE AND EXPERIENCE IN THE MAKING OF APARTHEID 6-10 February 1990 AUTHOR: Stephen Gray TITLE: The Long Eye of History : Four Autobiographical Texts by Peter Abrahams AFRICANA THE LONG EYE OF HISTORY: FOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL TEXTS BY PETER ABRAHAMS Stephen Gray Paper delivered at the History Workshop, Wits, February, 1990 Peter Abrahams described his life and mine in Tell Freedom. Richard Rive1 ... the analysis of South African literature must begin to go deeper than repugnance to social conditions only, and probe the basis of the varying reactions of black literature to racism and suppression. Kelwyn Sole2 The starting point here is Sole's exemplary paper of the History Workshop twelve years ago, especially in its aspects dealing with the interpretation of black autobiographical writing in South Africa (1948-60). There Sole argues that "What the text is silent on needs to be considered as well, as a text is always incomplete in an analytical sense and full of conflicted and contradictory meanings" (p. 144), and he concludes: "because literature is essentially an individual's translation and transformation of the 'lived relation between men and their world1, literature is in any final sense not reducible because each individual 'remakes' his lived relation in his or her work. As a result, literature may be both ideology and challenge the ideological structures of its time" (p. 165). Further, Sole says of the generation of black writers to which Peter Abrahams belongs: "African writers are in the unique position of trying to translate European literary forms to express different concerns, as written literature was propagated by colonial conquest and Western-style education..
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to The
    GUIDE TO THE NADINE GORDIMER PAPERS IN THE LILLY LIBRARY Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana 1994 rev. 2001, 2003 TABLE OF CONTENTS page I. Correspondence. 7 II. Writings . 7 III. Diaries and Notebooks . 40 IV. Miscellaneous. 41 V. Additions . 42 Index to Titles. 44 Nadine Gordimer was born in Springs, South Africa in 1923. At age 11 she began her writing career and was first published in the children's section of the Johannesburg Sunday Express in 1947. Since then she has written a number of novels. Excerpts of these, in addition to her countless short stories and articles, have appeared in magazines and newspapers worldwide. Many of her works reflect the political and social dilemmas of living under apartheid in South Africa and consequently, several of her books were banned in that country. Among her numerous awards are the Booker Prize for Fiction (1974), Modern Language Association of America award (1982), and the Premio Malaparte prize (1987). In 1991 Gordimer's entire body of work was honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was a four-time winner of the CNA Award sponsored by the Central News Agency, a book/stationery company in South Africa. She has been decorated Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France) and has received honorary degrees from such institutions as Harvard and Yale universities. Apart from her many achievements in writing, Gordimer has been visiting professor and lecturer at several American universities. She is a founder and executive member of the Congress of South African Writers and has encouraged and supported new writers, especially young African authors and poets.
    [Show full text]
  • Detribalization and Racial Conflict As Major Themes in Peter Abrahams
    ------~.- McMASTER UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ~ "::::J A .~~, To;" C' _";...,LJ..r..~.f:"',LJ." \ .... ~ i.J DETRIBALIZATION AND RACIAL CONFLICT AS I'1AJOR TlIEl\1ES IN PETER ABRAHAMS' AFRICAN WRITINGS By ROMOLA VASANTHA THUMBADOO, B.A. (Hons.), McMASTER A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements IVIa3ter of Arts Septembel' 197:5 MASTER OF ARTS (1975) McMASTER 0~IVE~SITY (p" '-1 .; 011·t~rio \ ..... J~..!6 _. •1. 01,)L_~..L.l. iI2DliJ_ton, Detrib21ization Rqcial Conflict as Major Themes in Peter Aln'a;l2.mS I African l,'lri tings .I\LJTifOP.: ~omola Vasantha Thu:nbadoo, "B.A. (I'kI\~aster University) :', , 71 i1. I \':is11 to thani\: Dr. A18n 131 shop fOT hi;::; encour2:gemell L and invaluable advice during the development of this thesis. iii TABLE OF COI~T~NTS CHAPTER I Introduction 1 CHAPTBR 2 Tell Freedom 13 CHAPTER 3 Song of the Ci ty and rEne Bgy 31 "The Blacks" and A ·T:Jrea th for Udomo 49 CHAPTER· 5 ConcluGion 65 BIBLIOGRAJ?EY 70 iv CHAPTEh 1 INTRODUCTIOl: The assimilation of Africa into western civil­ ization has been a painful process involving much struggle and hardship for African tri.bal society. Europe was successful in conquering Black Africa because she ",)'as superior in arms and technologyibut 'Vlorld Vlar II undermined the authority of European colonial powers in Africa by revealing their internal weaknesses and by engaging their attention elsewheree Since then, in­ creasing numbers of African states have achieved their independence, and the world has become very aware of Africa.
    [Show full text]