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Nadine Gordimer

ナディーン・ゴーディマー

Nadine Gordimer

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1923-11-20 （Springs, Transvaal, Union of South Africa）
Died
2014-07-13 （Johannesburg, South Africa） age 90
Nationality
South African
Languages
English
Religion
Atheist (born to a Jewish family)
Residence History
Parktown, Johannesburg, South Africa → Near Nice, France

Career

Occupations
novelist, short story writer, playwright, activist
Active Years
1937-2014
Affiliations
African National Congress (joined when it was banned), International PEN (served as Vice President), Congress of South African Writers (founding member)
Memberships
International PEN, American Philosophical Society (member), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (honorary member)
Influenced By
Olive Schreiner, Simone Weil, Teilhard de Chardin
Influenced
Zakes Mda, Many contemporary South African writers and the anti-apartheid literary generation

Education

University of the Witwatersrand
Period: 1年間（中途退学）
Country: South Africa
Studied for one year but did not complete a degree; thereafter lived and wrote in Johannesburg.

Awards

W. H. Smith Commonwealth Literary Award
1961
Work: Friday's Footprint
Organization: W. H. Smith
Result: winner
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
1971
Work: A Guest of Honour
Organization: James Tait Black Memorial Prize committee
Result: winner
Booker Prize
1974
Work: The Conservationist
Organization: Booker Prize committee
Result: winner (共著者と同年受賞の例あり)
Central News Agency Literary Award
1974
Work: The Conservationist
Organization: Central News Agency
Result: winner
Nobel Prize in Literature
1991
Organization: Swedish Academy
Result: winner
Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Best Book from Africa)
2002
Work: The Pickup
Organization: Commonwealth Foundation
Result: winner
Officier of the Legion of Honour
2007
Organization: Government of France
Result: recipient

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Lying Days

1953 Autobiographical novel (Bildungsroman)

A semi-autobiographical novel charting the coming-of-age and political awakening of Helen in a small mining town near Johannesburg, exploring race and class.

coming-of-agerace and class conflictrural-urban divide

The Conservationist

1974 Novel

Follows a wealthy white industrialist and his farm, using the figure to examine conservation, ownership, and the moral foundations of apartheid.

ownership and dominationrace relationsnature and politics

Burger's Daughter

1979 Novel

The story of Rosa Burger, daughter of an anti-apartheid martyr, as she negotiates political commitment and personal identity. Banned briefly in South Africa on publication.

political commitmentfamily and memorycensorship and freedom of expression

July's People

1981 Novel

Imagines a violent South African revolution in which a white couple hide with their former servant July, exploring shifting power, race and survival.

violence and choicereversal of racial relationsethical dilemmas

The Pickup

2001 Novel

Centers on Julie, a white woman, and Abdu, an illegal immigrant, addressing displacement, alienation, class, faith, and cross-cultural love.

immigration and alienationclass and economicsreligion and empathy

The House Gun

1998 Novel

Follows a family dealing with their son's murder of a housemate, exploring crime, gun culture, and lingering racial and class tensions in South Africa.

crime and responsibilityguns and the householdlegacy of apartheid

No Time Like the Present

2012 Novel

A late-career novel set in contemporary South Africa addressing politics, personal lives and history, including questions of race and religion.

contemporary South African issuespolitics and the personaldialogue between past and present

Bibliography

  • The Lying Days (1953)
  • A World of Strangers (1958)
  • Occasion for Loving (1963)
  • The Late Bourgeois World (1966)
  • A Guest of Honour (1970)
  • The Conservationist (1974)
  • Burger's Daughter (1979)
  • July's People (1981)
  • A Sport of Nature (1987)
  • My Son's Story (1990)
  • None to Accompany Me (1994)
  • The House Gun (1998)
  • The Pickup (2001)
  • Get a Life (2005)
  • No Time Like the Present (2012)

Adaptations

  • Danish film adaptation of A World of Strangers (released as Dilemma/A World of Strangers, 1962)
  • The Gordimer Stories (TV adaptations of seven short stories, 1981–82)

Translations of Works

  • Many works have been translated into multiple languages, including Japanese (e.g. The Conservationist).

Style & Themes

Literary Style
precise psychological characterizationdeep engagement with ethical and political themesmastery of both short story and novel forms
Recurring Motifs
the ambiguities of racial boundariesmoral choice and conscienceintersections of domestic life and politics

Legacy

Gordimer gained international recognition for her literature addressing apartheid and for her activism. Her 1991 Nobel Prize established her global influence and she left a lasting legacy in South African literature and the anti-apartheid movement.

Academic Societies

  • Congress of South African Writers
  • Honored by various literary societies internationally

Archives

  • Nadine Gordimer collection, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
  • Guide to Gordimer manuscripts, Lilly Library, Indiana University

In Popular Culture

  • Namesake of the Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award
  • Honored with a Google Doodle on her 92nd birthday (2015)

Quotes

  • I have a sense from the way my books get reviewed there that they make people feel uncomfortable inside, and they resent it when you touch on that.
    Source: Quoted in Joseph Lelyveld, The New York Times (1985) (1985)

Trivia

  • First published at age 13 (1937).
  • Burger's Daughter was briefly banned in South Africa after its 1979 publication.
  • Was active in the anti-apartheid movement and joined the ANC when it was still banned.
  • Declined a shortlisting for the Orange Prize in 1998.