Nadine Gordimer is a
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n
writerA writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and political activist. She was awarded the 1991
Nobel Prize in LiteratureSince 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of
Alfred NobelAlfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments...
– been of very great benefit to humanity".
Her writing has long dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the
African National CongressThe African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
during the days when the organization was banned. She has recently been active in HIV/AIDS causes.
Biography
Gordimer was born around
Springs, GautengSprings is a city on the East Rand in the Gauteng province of South Africa.It lies 50 km east of Johannesburg. The name of the city derives from the large number of springs in the area; it has a population of more than 200,000, and is situated at 5,340 ft a.s.l...
, an East Rand
miningMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
town outside
JohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, the daughter of Isidore and Nan Gordimer. Her parents were both Jewish immigrants, her father a watchmaker from
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
near the
LatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
n border, and her mother from
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. 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 czarist Russia helped form Gordimer's political identity, but he was neither an activist nor particularly sympathetic toward the experiences of black people under apartheid.
Conversely, Gordimer saw activism by her mother, whose concern about the poverty and discrimination faced by black people in South Africa led her to found a
crècheCrèche may refer to:*Day care center, an organization of adults who take care of children in place of their parents*Nativity scene, a group of figures arranged to represent the birth of Jesus Christ...
for black children. Gordimer also witnessed government repression firsthand, when as a teenager the police raided her family home, confiscating letters and diaries from a servant's room.
Gordimer was educated at a
CatholicCatholic schools are maintained parochial schools or education ministries of the Catholic Church. the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system...
convent school, but was largely home-bound as a child because of her mother's "strange reasons of her own" (apparently, fears that Gordimer had a weak heart). Home-bound and often isolated, she began writing at an early age, and published her first stories in 1937 at the age of fifteen. 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.
Gordimer studied for a year at the
University of the WitwatersrandThe University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...
, where she mixed for the first time with fellow professionals across the
color barRacial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
. She also became involved in the Sophiatown renaissance. She did not complete her degree, but moved to
JohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
in 1948, where she has lived ever since. While taking classes in Johannesburg, Gordimer continued to write, publishing mostly in local South African magazines. She collected many of these early stories in
Face to Face, published in 1949.
In 1951, the
New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
accepted Gordimer's story "A Watcher of the Dead", beginning a long relationship, and bringing Gordimer's work to a much larger public. Gordimer, who has said she believes the
short storyA short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
is the literary form for our age, has continued to publish short stories in the
New Yorker and other prominent literary journals. Gordimer's first publisher, Lulu Friedman, was the wife of the Parliamentarian
Bernard FriedmanDr Bernard Friedman , was a surgeon, politician, author, businessman, and outstanding orator who co-founded the anti-apartheid Progressive Party . He was educated at Pretoria Boys' High School and then he read medicine at Edinburgh University, where he was a gold medalist...
and it was at their house that Gordimer met other anti-apartheid writers
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. 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.
Political and literary activism
The arrest of her best friend, Bettie du Toit, in 1960 and the
Sharpeville massacreThe Sharpeville Massacre occurred on 21 March 1960, at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville in the Transvaal . After a day of demonstrations, at which a crowd of black protesters far outnumbered the police, the South African police opened fire on the crowd, killing 69...
spurred Gordimer's entry into the anti-apartheid movement. Thereafter, she quickly became active in South African politics, and was close friends with
Nelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
's defense attorneys (
Bram FischerAbram Louis Fischer, commonly known as Bram Fischer, was a South African lawyer of Afrikaner descent, notable for anti-apartheid activism and for the legal defence of anti-apartheid figures, including Nelson Mandela at the Rivonia Trial.-Tributes:Fischer is widely acknowledged as a key figure in...
and
George BizosGeorge Bizos is a distinguished human rights advocate who campaigned against apartheid in South Africa, most notably during the Rivonia Trial.-Early life:...
) during his 1962 trial. When Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Gordimer was one of the first people he wanted to see.
During the 1960s and 1970s, she continued to live in
JohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, although she occasionally left for short periods of time to teach at several universities in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. She had begun to achieve international literary recognition, receiving her first major award in 1961. Throughout this time, Gordimer continued to demand through both her writing and her activism that South Africa re-examine and replace its long held policy of apartheid.
During this time, the South African government banned several of her works, two for lengthy periods of time.
The Late Bourgeois World was Gordimer's first personal experience with censorship; it was banned in 1976 for a decade by the South African government.
A World of Strangers was banned for twelve years. Other works were censored for lesser amounts of time.
Burger's Daughter, published in June, 1979, was banned one month later; the Publications Committee's Appeal Board reversed the censorship of
Burger's Daughter six months later, determining that the book was too one-sided to be subversive. Gordimer responded to this decision in
Essential Gesture (1988), pointing out that the board banned two books by black authors at the same time it unbanned her own work.
July's PeopleJuly's People is a 1981 novel by 1991 Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. Nadine Gordimer wrote this book before the end of apartheid as her prediction of how it would end.-Banning:The book was notably banned in South Africa after its publication....
was also banned under apartheid, and faced censorship under the post-apartheid government as well: In 2001, a provincial education department temporarily removed
July's PeopleJuly's People is a 1981 novel by 1991 Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. Nadine Gordimer wrote this book before the end of apartheid as her prediction of how it would end.-Banning:The book was notably banned in South Africa after its publication....
from the school reading list, along with works by other anti-apartheid writers, describing
July's People as "deeply racist, superior and patronizing"—a characterization that Gordimer took as a grave insult, and that many literary and political figures protested.
In South Africa, she joined the
African National CongressThe African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
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. Rather than simply criticizing the organization for its perceived flaws, she advocated joining it to address them. She hid ANC leaders in her own home to aid their escape from arrest by the government, and she has said that the proudest day of her life was when she testified at the 1986
Delmas Treason TrialThe Delmas Treason Trial in South Africa was the prosecution of 22 anti-apartheid activists under security laws, with the intention of suppressing the United Democratic Front . The defendants included three senior UDF leaders, Frank Chikane, Mosiuoa Lekota and Popo Molefe, known as the "Big Three"...
on behalf of 22 South African anti-apartheid activists. (See
Simon NkoliSimon Tseko Nkoli was an anti-apartheid, gay rights and AIDS activist in South Africa.Nkoli was born in Soweto in a seSotho-speaking family. He grew up on a farm in the Free State and his family later moved to Sebokeng...
,
Mosiuoa LekotaMosiuoa Gerard Patrick Lekota is a South African politician who currently serves as the President and Leader of the Congress of the People since 16 December 2008. Previously, under President Thabo Mbeki, he served in the Cabinet of South Africa as Minister of Defence from 17 June 1999 to 25...
, etc.) Throughout these years she also regularly took part in anti-apartheid demonstrations in South Africa, and traveled internationally speaking out against South African apartheid and discrimination and political repression.
Her works began achieving literary recognition early in her career, with her first international recognition in 1961, followed by numerous literary awards throughout the ensuing decades. Literary recognition for her accomplishments culminated with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991, which noted that Gordimer "through her magnificent epic writing has—in the words of Alfred Nobel—been of very great benefit to humanity".
Gordimer's activism has not been limited to the struggle against apartheid. She has resisted
censorshipthumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and state control of information, and fostered the literary arts. She refused to let her work be aired by the South African Broadcasting Corporation because it was controlled by the apartheid government. Gordimer also served on the steering committee of South Africa's Anti-Censorship Action Group. A founding member of the
Congress of South African WritersThe Congress of South African Writers is a South African grassroots writer’s organisation.Launched in July 1987, its initial aims were to promote literature and redress the imbalances of apartheid education...
, Gordimer has also been active in South African letters and international literary organizations. She has been Vice President of
International PENPEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
.
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 TalesTelling Tales is a 2004 anthology of works celebrating life, edited and organized by Nadine Gordimer as a fundraiser for South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign, which lobbies for government funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and care....
, a fundraising book for South Africa's
Treatment Action CampaignThe Treatment Action Campaign is a South African AIDS activist organization which was founded by the HIV-positive activist Zackie Achmat in 1998. TAC is rooted in the experiences, direct action tactics and anti-apartheid background of its founder...
, which lobbies for government funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and care. On this matter, she has been critical of the current South African government, noting in 2004 that she "approves" of everything President
MbekiThabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...
has done except his stance on AIDS.
While on lecture tours, she has spoken on matters of foreign policy and discrimination beyond South Africa. For instance, in 2005, when
Fidel CastroFidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
fell ill, Gordimer joined six other Nobel prizewinners in a public letter to the United States warning it not to seek to destabilize Cuba's communist government. In 2001 she urged her friend
Susan SontagSusan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
not to accept an award from the Israeli government, though she angered some (including her biographer) by refusing to equate
ZionismZionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
with apartheid. Gordimer's resistance to discrimination extended to her even refusing to accept "shortlisting" in 1998 for the Orange Prize, because the award recognizes only women writers.
In 2006, Gordimer was attacked in her home by robbers, sparking outrage in the country. Gordimer has apparently refused to move into a
gated complexIn its modern form, a gated community is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly-controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences. Gated communities usually consist of small residential...
, against the advice of some friends.
Gordimer self-identifies as an atheist, but has not been active in atheist organizations.
Work and themes
Gordimer has achieved lasting international recognition for her works, most of which deal with political issues, as well as the "moral and psychological tensions of her racially divided home country." Virtually all of Gordimer's works deal with themes of love and politics, particularly concerning race in South Africa. Always questioning power relations and truth, Gordimer tells stories of ordinary people, revealing moral ambiguities and choices. Her characterization is nuanced, revealed more through the choices her characters make than through their claimed identities and beliefs. She also weaves in subtle details within the character's names.
Overview of critical works
Her first published novel,
The Lying Days (1953), takes place in Gordimer's home town of Springs, Transvaal, an East Rand mining town near
JohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
. Arguably a semi-autobiographical work,
The Lying Days is a
BildungsromanIn literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
, charting the growing political awareness of a young white woman, Helen, toward small-town life and South African racial division.
In her 1963 work,
Occasion for Loving, Gordimer puts apartheid and love squarely together. Her protagonist, Ann Davis, is married to Boaz Davis, an ethnomusicologist, but in love with Gideon Shibalo, an artist with several failed relationships. Ann Davis is white, however, and Gideon Shibalo is black, and South Africa's government criminalised such relationships.
Gordimer collected the
James Tait Black Memorial PrizeFounded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for
A Guest of Honour in 1971 and, in common with a number of winners of this award, she was to go on to win the Booker Prize. The Booker was awarded to Gordimer for her 1974 novel,
The ConservationistThe Conservationist is a 1974 novel by 1991 Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. The book was a joint winner of the Man Booker Prize for fiction.-Plot summary:...
, and was a co-winner with
Stanley MiddletonStanley Middleton FRSL was a British novelist. He was born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire and educated at High Pavement School, Stanley Road, Nottingham and University College Nottingham....
's novel
Holiday.
The ConservationistThe Conservationist is a 1974 novel by 1991 Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. The book was a joint winner of the Man Booker Prize for fiction.-Plot summary:...
explores Zulu culture and the world of a wealthy white industrialist through the eyes of Mehring, the antihero. Per Wästberg described
The Conservationist as Gordimer's "densest and most poetical novel". Thematically covering the same ground as
Olive SchreinerOlive Schreiner was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel The Story of an African Farm which has been highly acclaimed ever since its first publication in 1883 for the bold manner in which it dealt with some of the burning issues...
's
The Story of an African Farm (1883) and J. M. Coetzee's
In the Heart of the Country (1977), the "conservationist" seeks to conserve nature to preserve the apartheid system, keeping change at bay. When an unidentified corpse is found on his farm, Mehring does the "right thing" by providing it a proper burial; but the dead person haunts the work, a reminder of the bodies on which Mehring's vision would be built.
Gordimer's 1979 novel
Burger's DaughterBurger's Daughter is an historical novel by South African Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Nadine Gordimer, originally published in the United Kingdom in 1979 by Jonathan Cape...
is the story of a woman analyzing her relationship with her father, a martyr to the anti-apartheid movement. The child of two Communist and anti-apartheid revolutionaries, Rosa Burger finds herself drawn into political activism as well. Written in the aftermath of the Soweto uprising, the novel was shortly thereafter banned by the South African government. Gordimer described the novel as a "coded homage" to
Bram FischerAbram Louis Fischer, commonly known as Bram Fischer, was a South African lawyer of Afrikaner descent, notable for anti-apartheid activism and for the legal defence of anti-apartheid figures, including Nelson Mandela at the Rivonia Trial.-Tributes:Fischer is widely acknowledged as a key figure in...
, the lawyer who defended
Nelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
and other anti-apartheid activists.
In
July's PeopleJuly's People is a 1981 novel by 1991 Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. Nadine Gordimer wrote this book before the end of apartheid as her prediction of how it would end.-Banning:The book was notably banned in South Africa after its publication....
(1981), Gordimer imagines a bloody South African revolution, in which white people are hunted and murdered after black people begin a revolution against the apartheid government. The work follows Maureen and Bamford Smales, an educated white couple, hiding for their lives with July, their long-time former servant. The novel plays off the various groups of "July's people": his family and his village, as well as the Smales. The story examines how people cope with the terrible choices forced on them by violence, race hatred, and the state.
The House Gun (1998) was Gordimer's second post-apartheid novel. It follows the story of a couple, Claudia and Harald Lingard, dealing with their son Duncan's murder of one of his housemates. The novel treats the rising crime rate in South Africa and the guns that virtually all households have, as well as the legacy of South African apartheid and the couple's concerns about their son's lawyer, who is black. The novel was optioned for film rights to Granada Productions.
Gordimer's award-winning 2002 novel,
The PickupThe Pickup is a 2001 novel by South African writer Nadine Gordimer, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. The Pickup considers the issues of displacement, alienation, and immigration, class and economic power, religious faith, and the ability of people to see and love across these divides...
, considers the issues of displacement, alienation, and immigration; class and economic power; religious faith; and the ability for people to see, and love, across these divides. It tells the story of a couple: Julie Summers, a white woman from a financially secure family, and Abdu, an illegal Arab immigrant in South Africa. After Abdu's visa is refused, the couple returns to his homeland, where she is the alien. Her experiences and growth as an alien in another culture form the heart of the work.
Gordimer's recent novel,
Get a LifeGet a Life is an ecological novel by South African writer Nadine Gordimer.The novel tells the story of environmental activist Paul Bannerman and his family. Paul is diagnosed with thyroid cancer and, after surgery and subsequent radiation treatment, has to live quarantined at his parent's place...
, written in 2005 after the death of her longtime spouse, Reinhold Cassirer, is the story of a man undergoing treatment for a life-threatening disease. While clearly drawn from recent personal life experiences, the novel also continues Gordimer's exploration of political themes. The protagonist is an ecologist, battling installation of a planned nuclear plant. But he is at the same time undergoing radiation therapy for his cancer, causing him personal grief and, ironically, rendering him a nuclear health hazard in his own home. Here, Gordimer again pursues the questions of how to integrate everyday life and political activism.
Biography by Roberts
Ronald Suresh RobertsRonald Suresh Roberts, also known as RSR, is a Trinidadian biographer and columnist. He currently lives in South Africa.-Early life:Roberts was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago...
published a biography of Gordimer,
No Cold Kitchen, in 2006. Gordimer had granted Roberts interviews and access to her personal papers, with an understanding that she would authorize the biography in return for a right to review the manuscript before publication. However, Gordimer and Roberts failed to reach an agreement over his account of the illness and death of Gordimer's husband Reinhold Cassirer and an affair Gordimer had in the 50s, as well as criticism of her views on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Roberts published independently, not as "authorized", and Gordimer disavowed the book, accusing Roberts of breach of trust.
In addition to those disagreements, Roberts critiques Gordimer's post-apartheid advocacy on behalf of black South Africans, in particular her opposition to the government's handling of the AIDS crisis, as a paternalistic and hypocritical white liberalism. The biography also revealed that Gordimer's 1954
New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
essay,
A South African Childhood, was not wholly biographical and contained some fabricated events.
Honours and awards
- W. H. Smith Commonwealth Literary Award (England) (1961)
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
(Scotland) (1972)
- Booker Prize for The Conservationist
The Conservationist is a 1974 novel by 1991 Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. The book was a joint winner of the Man Booker Prize for fiction.-Plot summary:...
(1974)
- CNA Prize (Central News Agency Literary Award), South Africa (1974, 1975, 1980, 1991)
- Grand Aigle d'Or (France) (1975)
- Orange Prize shortlisting; she rejected
- Scottish Arts Council Neil M. Gunn Fellowship (1981)
- Modern Language Association
The Modern Language Association of America is the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature...
Award (United States) (1982)
- Bennett Award (United States) (1987)
- Premio Malaparte (Italy) (1985)
- Nelly Sachs Prize
The Nelly Sachs Prize is a literary prize given every two years by the German city of Dortmund. It is named after the Jewish poet Nelly Sachs and includes a cash award of €15,000...
(Germany) (1986)
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (1988, A Sport of Nature)
- Nobel Prize for Literature (1991)
- Laureate of the International Botev Prize
The International Botev Prize is a prestigious Bulgarian award, presented to individuals with significant accomplishments in the field of literature.It was established in 1972 and is named after Hristo Botev, an iconic Bulgarian revolutionary and poet....
(1996)
- Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Best Book from Africa (2002; for The Pickup
The Pickup is a 2001 novel by South African writer Nadine Gordimer, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. The Pickup considers the issues of displacement, alienation, and immigration, class and economic power, religious faith, and the ability of people to see and love across these divides...
)
- Booker Prize longlist (2001; for The Pickup
The Pickup is a 2001 novel by South African writer Nadine Gordimer, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. The Pickup considers the issues of displacement, alienation, and immigration, class and economic power, religious faith, and the ability of people to see and love across these divides...
)
- Legion of Honour (France) (2007)
- Hon. Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
- Hon. Member, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
- Fellow, Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
(Britain)
- Patron, Congress of South African Writers
- Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
(France)
- At least 15 honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
s (the first being Doctor Honoris Causa at Leuven UniversityThe Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is a Dutch-speaking university in Flanders, Belgium.It is located at the centre of the historic town of Leuven, and is a prominent part of the city, home to the university since 1425...
in BelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
)
See also
Further reading
Brief biographies
Critical studies
- Stephen Clingman, The Novels of Nadine Gordimer: History from the Inside (1986)
- John Cooke, The Novels of Nadine Gordimer
- Andrew Vogel Ettin, Betrayals of the Body Politic: The Literary Commitments of Nadine Gordimer (1993)
- Dominic Head, Nadine Gordimer (1994)
- Christopher Heywood, Nadine Gordimer (1983)
- Rowland Smith, editor, Critical Essays on Nadine Gordimer (1990)
- Barbara Temple-Thurston, Nadine Gordimer Revisited (1999) ISBN 0805746080
- Kathrin Wagner, Rereading Nadine Gordimer (1994)
- Louise Yelin, From the Margins of Empire: Christina Stead, Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer (1998)
- Nadine Gordimer's Politics. Article by Jillian Becker
Jillian Becker is a novelist, prize-winning story-writer, critic, journalist, lecturer, best known internationally as a writer, researcher, and authority on the subject of terrorism.-Life:...
in Commentary, February 1992
Short reviews
Speeches and interviews
Biographies
- Ronald Suresh Roberts, No Cold Kitchen: A Biography of Nadine Gordimer (2005)
- No Cold Kitchen: A Biography of Nadine Gordimer by Ronald Suresh Roberts (STE)
Research archives
- Collection Index for Nadine Gordimer Short Stories and Novel Manuscript collection, 1958-1965 (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas)
- Guide to the Gordimer manuscripts, 1934-1991 (Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana)
- Nadine Gordimer Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...