Nadine Gordimer is a South African writer, known worldwide for her books, political activism and Nobel Prize she received in 1991.
The official rationale behind awarding the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature to Nadine Gordimer can be found here. It is not too specific, as those explanations tend to be.
There are plenty of reasons why Gordimer's writing deserves attention or even admiration (certainly true in my case). I am presenting some of them on this page but ultimately only her books can give you the full explanation.
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I can't think of a better way of learning about apartheid in South Africa (except, perhaps, of actually being there) than Nadine Gordimer's books. In non-fiction, she has actively opposed racial segregation, often speaking up against unjust laws or persecution of specific people. In fiction she presents the very same sentiments as powerful stories, less direct perhaps, but reaching straight to the hearts of her readers. The author herself claims that fiction can be the best medium to present the reality as it is and in her case this claim is justified.
Nadine Gordimer's books were censored for political reasons in her own country - her speaking up for the black majority and justice was judged dangerous by the ruling establishment of the apartheid days.
Internationally celebrated for her novels, Nadine Gordimer has devoted much of her life and fiction to the political struggles of the Third World, the New World, and her native ...
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Internationally celebrated for her novels, Nadine Gordimer has devoted much of her life and fiction to the political struggles of the Third World, the New World, and her native ...
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Selected from over 160 titles this is an anthology of non-fiction writings by one of South Africa's most respected writers and author of the Booker Prizewinner "The Conservation...
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Nadine Gordimer has always been a great advocate of total freedom of expression, especially for artists. She's had personal experience of censorship - some of her books were banned in South Africa - and she has protested against it in many of her non-fiction writings. Let me quote some of her views:
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"What is a writer's freedom?
To me it is his right to maintain and publish to the world a deep, intense, private view of the situation in which he finds his society. If he is to work as well as he can, he must take, and be granted, freedom from the public conformity of political interpretation, morals and tastes."
A Writer's Freedom
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"I think I am the only one who has ever been favoured with an explanation for a book banning. I was informed that the official attitude to my second novel - banned in the Penguin edition in which it would have reached its widest public in my country - was that the book 'undermines the traditional race policy of the Republic'.
That was the truth, for once, the truth behind pious concern for young minds: it's not four-letter words that menace them, but the danger that they may begin to think, and, under the stimulus of certain books, come up with some doubts about the way their lives are ordered."
Censored, Banned, Gagged
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"I am one who has always believed and still believes we shall never be rid of censorship until we are rid of apartheid"
Censors and Unconfessed History
When Julie Summers' car breaks down in a sleazy street, a young Arab garage mechanic comes to her rescue. Out of this meeting develops a friendship that turns to love. But soon,...
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