by Nadine

Africa Emergent

GordimerGroups Members

3)

Elizabeth Su Xin Li 2) Dzairi Azmeer Bin Derahman Mohd Amirudin Bin Mohd Zabidin1)

Born: 20 November 1923 (age 88) Occupation: Playwright, Novelist. Language :English Nationality :South African Notable work(s):The Conservationist, July's People Notable award(s):Nobel Prize in Literature 1991

Nadine Gordimer

Gordimer was born near Springs, Gauteng, an East Rand mining town outside Johannesburg, the daughter of Jewish immigrants. 2) Gordimer's early interest in racial and economic inequality in South Africa was shaped in part by her parents. Her father's experience as a Jewish refugee in czarism Russia helped form Gordimer's political identity, but he was neither an activist nor particularly sympathetic toward the experiences of black people under apartheid.1)

3) Conversely, Gordimer saw activism by her mother, whose concern about the poverty and discrimination faced by black people in South Africa ostensibly led her to found a crche for black children. 4) Her first published work was a short story for children, "The Quest for Seen Gold," which appeared in the Children's Sunday Express in 1937; "Come Again Tomorrow," another children's story, appeared in Forum around the same time. At the age of 16, she had her first adult fiction published.

5)Gordimer studied for a year at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she mixed for the first time with fellow professionals across the color bar. She also became involved in the Sophiatown renaissance. She did not complete her degree, but moved to Johannesburg in 1948, where she has lived ever since. 6)Gordimer's first novel, The Lying Days, was published in 1953. In 1954, she married Reinhold Cassirer, a highly respected art dealer who established the South African Sotheby's and later ran his own gallery; their "wonderful marriage" lasted until his death from emphysema in 2001. It was her second marriage and his third.

7) Their son, Hugo, was born in 1955, and is today a filmmaker in New York, with whom Gordimer has collaborated on at least two documentaries. Hugo Cassirer later married Sarah Buttrick, and had three children: Kate, Roland, and Conrad. Gordimer also has a daughter, Oriane (born 1950), by her first marriage.

The arrest of her best friend, Bettie du Toit, in 1960 and the Sharpeville massacre spurred Gordimer's entry into the anti-apartheid movement. Thereafter, she quickly became active in South African politics.

In South Africa, she joined the African National Congress when it was still listed as an illegal organization by the South African government. While never blindly loyal to any organization, Gordimer saw the ANC as the best hope for reversing South Africa's treatment of black citizens.

In the post-apartheid 1990s and 21st century, Gordimer has been active in the HIV/AIDS movement, which is a significant public health crisis in South Africa. In 2004, she organized about 20 major writers to contribute short fiction for Telling Tales, a fundraising book for South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign.

In 2006, Gordimer was attacked in her home by robbers, sparking outrage in the country. Gordimer has apparently refused to move into a gated complex, against the advice of some friends.

Political and Literarary Activism

by Nadine

Africa Emergent

Gordimer

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The story talks about the racial oppression and apartheid in South Africa where black were oppressed by the white. Two different occupations have represent the white and black differences in their culture. The white as an architect where the black as a sculptor named Elias Nkomo. Oppression takes place when Elias failed on his attempt to get his passport so that he can travel to America.

Summary

- Elias best friend suddenly got a passport due to his scholarship to study in New York. So they both went to America, where his best friend on his passport while Elias on an exit permit (one way ticket) resulting that he will never return to South Africa again.

Summary

Since

Elias was being oppressed, he produce mediocre work and received approbation for it. He did not think he deserve it yet he accepted the praises, and when he did that, he accepted his oppression. The only escape he found from that was death. He drowned himself in the river of New England, America. This is because this is the only he can reach the freedom where the oppression will no longer control him.

Elias death, he (nameless black) came to see the narrator. The narrator was frustrated when he found out that he took Eliass air ticket because he was alive and needed it. He then asked the narrator for a loan. This gets in the way of their friendship. And then, he was fetched from his room one night and imprisoned. He was charged of treason under the Detention Act. Finally the white can get rid themselves of the shame rumors. After

Summary

Racial Oppression The different statuses between two different races in South Africa: The two occupations, architect and artist represent white & black differences in the South African culture. The white man is an architect, with more formal education. His position holds more prestige and economic value in society. Elias, a black man, is a sculptor. Though both architect and sculptor can be thought of as artistic, the sculptor's creativity is more innate but the architect holds more power. The Blacks are always imprisoned in the society, a natural thing happen in South Africa.

Theme

The effects of Apartheid system to the African Society Apartheid system causes the bonds and relationships between black and white difficult. During the Apartheid time, it is socially wrong for a white man to be friend with another black man what more to be friend of a black men who is a prisoner. The short story shows that it is difficult for the narrator to maintain friendship with the nameless Black man (the prisoner) after he lends him money. This gets in the way of their friendship. All the power is with the whites so they cannot be friends on equal terms.

Theme

Place: 1) South Africa The oppression of black people. A place which prevented black people from growing. 2) Slums (a very poor and crowded area) Blacks lived in locations which are slums. Elias used to live in the slums of Johannesburg.

3) River of New England Elias drowned himself/ committed suicide.

Setting (Places)

Time: 1) Between 1948 and 1994 2) Early one morning: Elias took his own life. Society: 1) Apartheid and racism society: Apartheid in South Africa was a completely unequal society where the whites grew rich by exploiting the blacks.

Setting (Time)

The Narrator White female Architect Began integrating with Blacks when she was a student. Met Blacks via the White Students Voluntary Service organisation became disillusioned because she believed the work they were doing should be done by government for Black communities. Met Blacks then out drinking with Black jazz musicians. Designed sets for mixed-race drama group, started by White man.

Character and Characteristics

Partly blames himself for death of Elias- didnt respond to his letters and was too critical of the fact that Elias work is not developing. I know you dont think much of people who dont turn out new stuff but some people here seem to think this old thing of mine is good. P189 Helped Elias to continue his art by providing him with workshop space even though he was breaking the law in doing so. He recognises the beauty of Elias work- But youve never been lost, man. That very first goat wrapped in newspaper was your goat. P187

Is very aware that he compromises his own values and beliefs because he doesnt fully believe in the nameless Black man: Theres only one way for a man like that to prove himself, so far as were concerned: he must be in prison. P192 There is some irony in this statement because he doesnt want to think like this but we suspect that he does just like all the other White liberals. Shows self-awareness at the end. Bitterness in his statement; We (his white friends) can be pure again. We are satisfied at last. Hes in prison. Hes proved himself, hasnt he? p194 Narrator knows it should not be like this to be real friends people of all races must be equal and able to trust each other.

Elias

Black African - Zulu Was a sculptor. The goat-like creature he shows the narrator reminds the white man of Picassos goats. Used to live in the slums of Johannesburg an urban slum kid. Also been in the bush to undergo Zulu initiation rites. P188 Likes company found it difficult to work in the silence of the workshop Elias didnt like the loneliness of work. P185 Has some success in South Africa is taken up and hailed as the latest voice in African art but is then dropped when the gallery-owner an the art critic forgot him in the discovery of yet another interpreter of the African soul p186

Gains scholarship to American university through American woman. Wants to go to get an education although the narrator doesnt believe the art schools can teach him anything of real value. Cant get passport nobody knows why. Takes exit permit which means he cannot return. In USA is taken up by magazines and Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.- Stokely Carmichael. Even they dont understand his culture put him on stage in West African dress. Nameless Black man later tells narrator that Elias began to act oddly in USA. Wanted to find goat so he could put on real African feast. Found dead in river near Art school presumed to have committed suicide.

The Nameless Black Man

At the start we learn that he is in jail under the Detention Act. Good friend of Elias. He was part of the drama group with the Narrator and Elias. He was a tubby man. A cheerful, smooth talker. Offered drama scholarship in USA. Gained passport seen as suspicious by whites but Black friends celebrated his success: when someone black got a passport, then, there was a collective sense of pleasure--- p188

Came back on money from Elias scholarship after Elias died. Offered a job in Chicago but didnt have the money to go. Has three smartly-dressed and well-behaved children who go with him to the narrators house. Borrows money from the narrator to buy a car. This gets in the way of their friendship. Money is not paid back though there are rumours that he is doing very well as a salesman. Narrator does well, too, and doesnt need the money but feels faintly resentful about it anyway p193 His wife leaves him. Was thought to be a police spy he was the only person not arrested at a meeting. Suspicion that he murdered Elias for his money?? (Never clearly hinted at.) In jail for two hundred and seventy-seven days and expected to be tried for treason.

Political Criticism

Apartheid, the Afrikaans word meaning separateness (literally, apartness), was coinedduring the 1930s by the Stellenbosch-based South African Bureau of Race Relations (SABRA). It was to denote the separate development of the races living in South Africa. Example: Exploitation of persons of color for the benefit of a privileged white elite (discrimination). - Elias failed to obtain a passport because it is difficult for black people to gain passports.

Criticism

Marxist criticism (Sociology Critism) Racism Racial discrimination where whites oppressed blacks with their social status and education.

The two different occupations: - Architect (white) represents formal education and their higher status in society. - Sculptor (black) represents non-formal education and their lower status in society.

White uses occupation to show their superiority.

Criticism

http://www.angelfire.com/pa/janipage/worldlit.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Gordimer http://www.enotes.com/apartheid-reference/apartheid http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/103/africa-emergent.html

References

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