Nadine Gordimer: writer with a conscience

Abstract

Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer is one of South Africa's greatest literary treasures. A self-proclaimed political novelist by accident of birth, Gordimer grew up in a home that was not particularly politically conscious. She described her father as 'uninterested' in the political realities of segregated South Africa, even though he was kind, but kindness is not the thing, is it?. Gordimer described her mother as caring towards others and troubled by the conditions under which blacks lived. But it would never have occurred to her that the answer was radical political change. Her political awakening came through literature. Reflecting on her years growing up, Gordimer felt that she had an odd and lonely childhood, and found escape in reading.