Evolution Of Rosa's Suffering Consciousness In Burger's Daughter

Nadine Gordimer(1923-2014),the laureate of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991,enjoys a prestigious reputation in the literary arena.She is a writer of humanitarian concern for sympathy with the misery of repressed black people in apartheid times in South Africa.Burger's Daughter,an autobiographical work of Gordimer during apartheid,narrates the white revolutionary's daughter Rosa Burger's initiative process of embarking on the revolutionary path.The distinctive image reflects the unique spiritual world of the white revolutionaries' offspring.In terms of researches on this novel,several domestic academic theses and periodicals are conducted from perspectives of feminism,the protagonist's identity,growth theme and revolution theme.The perspective of suffering consciousness has not been noticed by critics yet.“Suffering” is the very thread that runs through the protagonist's initiation.Viewing the protagonist's growth from the perspective of suffering consciousness,Rosa gets morality improved int the initiation,in which process she begins with“innocence”,then experiences reflection and eventually achieves “maturity”;besides,the protagonist's approaching and assuming suffering for the liberation and happiness of other people regardless of her own sacrifice can be supported by Marxism Leninism,Mao Zedong Thought and numerous Communists' thought of seeking happiness for other people with no fear of difficulties,and is in accordance with the post-structuralist philosopher Judith Butler's thought that people have “moral obligation” to help people out of suffering from the perspective of human“cohabitation”.Therefore,on the basis of the growth theory,this thesis explores the following questions from the perspective of revolutionary “suffering consciousness”:how does Rosa's suffering consciousness change in her growth? What do these changes signify? The body of the thesis is divided into three chapters.The first chapter discusses Rosa's lack of suffering consciousness in the phase of innocence.The subject does not have a suffering consciousness due to a lack of cognition of the nature of herself and the world.On a personal level,influenced by white people's individualism,Rosa attempts to avoid suffering and craves for enjoyment and comfort.Socially,Rosa is incomprehensible of the significance of revolutionaries' assuming suffering for helping black people,which attributes to Rosa's negative attitudes to the anti-apartheid revolution.The second chapter elaborates Rosa's awakening of suffering consciousness in the phase of experience,with focus on her experience in escaping from suffering in Europe.On a personal level,Rosa reflects on her behavior of defection from the revolutionary path in self-enjoyment and realizes the cowardice in her action.On a social level,while she discovers the black people are bearing hatred for the white people as they are caught in suffering for being wronged under apartheid,she is clear that it's urgent for her to help the black people as a South African.The third chapter explains the maturity of Rosa's suffering consciousness in the last phase of initiation.Personally,she gives spiritual support to those people who suffer in the violent and bloody anti-apartheid struggle and is aware that her behavior is of significance,which strengthened her determination to bear suffering in revolution with courage.Socially,Rosa assumes responsibility for the suffering of black people and becomes a revolutionary.All in all,Rosa changes from indifference to other people's suffering to actively approaching and bearing their suffering reckless of their own suffering.As the representative of the white young generation,Rosa's choice shows that Gordimer hopes numerous white people with a sense of justice to fight against racism fearless of suffering that may fall on them.In this process,Gordimer expresses a revolutionary idea that “no one can place herself outside history”.White South Africans should show solicitude for the well-being of black people and be courageous to assume their suffering and live as an indomitable fighter,“striving for happiness faced with the suffering of the world” for the establishment of a South Africa with equality and harmony.