Le pouvoir d’enclavement et la fin de l’Histoire. De Jurassic Park aux communautés fermées

Cet article analyse trois récits qui traitent d’enclavement — Jurassic Park de Michael Crichton, Le ParK de Bruce Bégout et la nouvelle « Once Upon a Time » de Nadine Gordimer. Le but est de saisir, d’une part, les formes de pouvoir et de domination qui se déploient au sein de ce type de lieux (parcs à thème et communautés fermées), et d’autre part, le rapport idéologique à l’historicité généré par ces espaces privatisés. Nous mettons en évidence la manière dont ces fictions qui poussent la logique du parcage dans ses derniers retranchements mettent à nu la violence de l’idéologie sécuritaire néolibérale.

HISTÓRIA, POLÍTICA E SOCIEDADE: UMA ANÁLISE TEMÁTICA DAS LITERATURAS AFRICANAS PÓS-COLONIAIS

Este artigo analisa um conjunto de obras representativas das literaturas africanas pós-coloniais, a partir de recortes temáticos que transitam entre a história e a política das sociedades africanas. O trabalho apresenta uma série de leituras críticas sobre as obras O melhor tempo é o presente (2014) de Nadine Gordimer, Um Grão de Trigo (2015) de Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, O Planalto e a Estepe (2009) de Pepetela e Elizabeth Costello (2004) de J. M. Coetzee, a fim de apontar os grandes temas dessas literaturas, com destaque à questão colonial e seus desdobramentos no presente, a história política das nações africanas e a discriminação racial, como elementos fundamentais para se compreender o universo literário africano.

7. The ingathering

“The ingathering” surveys modern Jewish literature after the Second World War beyond Israel and the United States and meditates on the multilingual aspect of Jewish literature. This includes the work of Alberto Gerchunoff and Jacobo Timerman in Argentina, Clarice Lispector and Moacyr Scliar in Brazil, Elias Canetti in Bulgaria, Dan Jacobson and Nadine Gordimer in South Africa, and Harold Pinter and Howard Jacobson in the United Kingdom. Jewish writers are simultaneously insiders and outsiders, a position that allows them a unique perspective full of nuance. Therefore, modern Jewish literature is truly global, in regard to not only its authors but also its multifaceted audiences.

From apartheid to Post-Apartheid: The Representational Trajectory to a Multiracial Nation in Nadine Gordimer’s None to Accompany Me, Andre Brink’s The Rights of Desire and Zakes Mda’s The Madonna of Excelsior

This article, which draws inspiration from the literary works of three South African writers, focuses on the two (amongst many) major historic periods in the life of the present-day nation described as post-apartheid South Africa. The two periods, evident in the works of Andre Brink, Zakes Mda and Nadine Gordimer under review, are the reign of apartheid and the transition to a democratic multiracial society built on the principles of equality and the respect of the rights and freedoms of South Africans. From both historical and literary standpoints, the transition to multiracialism is the outcome of the struggle of the oppressed black population of South Africa against the oppressive monolithic racist regime which ruled the country on an official governance policy which it called ‘Apartheid’. In order to enforce this inhumane worldview, the said racist regime used means of brutality and savagery with the intention of transforming the country into a ‘white nation’ that would belong to a minority-turned majority known as the Afrikaners. The often callous and gruesome acts of inhumanity perpetrated by the different racist apartheid regimes (that ruled South Africa from 1948-1994) became a major concern to the world at large and South African anti-apartheid writers in particular. Thus this category of the country’s writers tended to use literature as an instrument of protest against racial discrimination, which brought untold hardship to the black population. Andre Brink, Zakes Mda, and Nadine Gordimer are among the writers whose works vividly trace the South African experience from apartheid to post-apartheid eras. Brink, Mda and Gordimer in their respective works attempt to portray the endeavours and challenges of reconstructing the new nation from the debris of close to four decades of the brutal regime. The main issues discussed in this article are analyzed from New Historicist and Postcolonial perspectives due to the peculiar postcolonial nature of South Africa.

“ONDE É QUE OS BRANCOS SE ENCAIXAM?”: A OBRA DE NADINE GORDIMER COMO POLÍTICA DE RECONCILIAÇÃO

Este artigo procura apresentar o pensamento de Nadine Gordimer acerca do papel que a população branca sul-africana poderia desempenhar quando as nações africanas, incluindo o seu próprio país, se tornassem independentes das potências coloniais europeias. Com base em duas produções ficcionais da autora e dois de seus ensaios mais conhecidos, procuro investigar a questão delineada anteriormente por meio da análise de como essa tese se desenvolveu na obra da autora num intervalo de quarenta anos de sua carreira. Estas reflexões buscam contextualizar a questão étnico-racial específica da África do Sul enquanto cenário ficcional e biográfico de Nadine Gordimer bem como expandir a questão para os debates identitários contemporâneos.

Genre versus Prize: The Short Story Form and African Oral Traditions

In “The Short Story in Africa,” Nadine Gordimer writes that the genre is more malleable and open to experimentation with style, language and form than the novel, which means that it is more easily accommodated within a variety of media spaces. Gordimer adds that the short story is “a fragmented and restless form, a matter of hit or miss, and it is perhaps for this reason that it suits modern consciousness” (170–71). Taking its cue from Gordimer’s remarks, this article attempts to examine the genre of the short story through the lens of the literary prize industry in Africa. In most parts of the continent the development of the short story, like that of the novel and other genres, has been slow, facing a number of challenges such as a historically impoverished publishing industry. The rise in popularity of the local and global literary prize for the short story has however played a significant role in the promotion of the genre and literature generally on the continent. The article examines the short story’s increased presence in the digital space and interrogates the general assumption on the part of many of the prize-awarding bodies that the short story can be linked to African oral traditions. The aim of the article is to explore the relationship between the genre and the rising popularity of the literary prize on the continent, focusing on the various ways in which the prize is (re)shaping the contemporary African short story. Keywords: Orality, literary prize, publishing, exoticism, literary fracture, disconnectivity

Political Activism and Family Matters in Nadine Gordimer‘s My Son’s Story (1990)

Before independence, South Africa experienced her most socio-political turbulences because of Apartheid. Peter Abrahams, John Maxwell Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer depict racial discrimination, political and sexual violence and social injustice in the context of Apartheid. The aims of this article is to portray “political affairs”, “family matters” and private passions in Nadine Gordimer’s My Son’s Story. It also brings to light Sonny’s motivation to become a political activist and join the blacks in the resistance against racial discrimination.