The Evolution Of The White Image In Nadine Gordimer's Novels

Nadine Gordimer,the first laureate of Nobel Prize in literature of South Africa,has been writing about the social realities of South Africa under the influence of apartheid for six decades.Gordimer experienced the social and historical process of the establishment of apartheid,overthrow of apartheid and post-apartheid period of South Africa.Epic writing is one of the most important features of her works.In the special social and historical environment,Gordimer has a profound understanding of the apartheid and artistic expression of the life under apartheid.As a white English writer,she constantly ponders over the social reality in her writing,and the white images in her works also change accordingly.This paper begins with the evolution of white images in Gordimer's novel,combines with her own experience of growing up in South Africa and participating in the black liberation movement,analyzes the characteristics of the evolution of white images through close reading,and explores the realistic concern behind the evolution of white images.This paper first analyzes the distinct images of white people in Gordimer's novels in different periods.Gordimer's novels closely focus on the diachronic evolution of South Africa's social development.Under the different historical backgrounds,there are three typical characters: the witnesses of apartheid,the participants who support the black liberation movement,and the marginalized wander.These three groups of characters changed with the evolution of writer's creative ideas.At the beginning of her creation,Gordimer focus on the young white generation of the middle class in South Africa and records the real life under apartheid from their perspective.With the increasingly oppression of apartheid on the black community,Gordimer realizes the cruelty and injustice of the social reality and resolutely devoted herself to the black liberation movement.Her novels also show the fierce anti-apartheid ideology.Therefore,the white images of her novels change from the witnesses of South African society to the participants of the anti-apartheid movement.The post-apartheid era was a period of transition from the old to the new,and people living in the new South Africa faced new uncertainties and difficulties.The last chapter of this paper analyzes the reflection and concern of social reality behind the evolution of white images.There are full of unique realistic concern of Gordimer's novels in different periods.While recording the life in South Africa,she also explores the root of South Africa with artistic methods.She indicates that the white should help the black to fight for equality,not by creating white heroes,but by exploring the pain and struggle of apartheid for both white and black people in the scene of life.Her insights into the society of South Africa have a positive impact on the dismantling of apartheid.The pursuit of freedom and equality does not disappear with the abolition of apartheid.