The Novels of Nadine Gordimer: History from the Inside

By Stephen Clingman

Book Overview

In Nadine Gordimer's view, the novel can present history as historians cannot. Moreover, this presentation is not fictional in the sense of being "untrue." Rather, fiction deals with an area of activity usually inaccessible to the sciences of greater externally: the area in which historical process is registered as the subjective experience of individuals in society; fiction give us "history from the inside." Gordimer's novels give us an extraordinary and unique insight into historical experience in the period in which she writes.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870238027
• ISBN13: 9780870238024
• Release Date: November 1992
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.6"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Remains best book about Gordimer

There are now a number of critical studies of the Nobel laureate's fiction, but none replaces Clingman's authoritative guide. The book proves particularly useful to American readers, as Clingman provides cogent discussions of the historical and political setting of Gordimer's apartheid-era writing.