'My narrative falters, as it must' : rethinking memory in recent Northern Irish fiction

Magennis, C

Abstract

This chapter explores Nadine Gordimer's profound commitment to change and transformation in South Africa. Aware of the profound impact of colonialism and racism on all South Africans, she used her position as a white South African writer, to bear witness to the impact of the colonial past, to rail against the racist present and to imagine a society free of fratricidal conflict. In so doing it examines Gordimer's prescient treatment of the place white people would occupy in a post-apartheid South Africa where race remains pivotal. Liberals are people who make promises they have no power to keep". Christopher Warnes suggests that Gordimer was responding to the radical politics of Black Consciousness and specifically to Steve Biko's assertion that in a post-apartheid South Africa, called liberal white South Africans would not determine the terms of political engagement. Indeed, it is impossible to read Nadine Gordimer's work without being aware of the relationship between literary texts and discourses of transitional justice.

• Online Publication Date: Apr 20, 2016
• Publication Date: May 8, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jun 2, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 9, 2019
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 43-55
• Series Title: Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature
• Series Number: 66
• Book Title: Post-Conflict Literature: Human Rights, Peace, Justice
• ISBN: 9781138916302-(hardback);-9781315689746-(ebook)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315689746
• Publisher URL: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315689746/chapters/10.4324/9781315689746-9
• Related Public URLs: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315689746
• Additional Information: Access Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Post-Conflict Literature: Human Rights, Peace, Justice on 20th April 2016, available online: http://www.routledge.com/9781315689746