Tracing the History of Apartheid in the Select Novels of Nadine Gordimer

This study explores the history and evolution of apartheid in Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s Daughter (1976) and July’s People (1981). These novels were written against the backdrop of major political and historical events in South Africa. The writings of Gordimer portray the social, political, and cultural milieu of South Africa, where people from numerous communities reside. The plots of Gordimer’s novels are mostly woven around the central theme of apartheid. As a white author of European origin, Nadine Gordimer portrayed the testimony of the subjugation and cruelty of Western colonizers against native South Africans. Gordimer was assertive against the inequalities of the apartheid regime in South Africa throughout her writings. In these two novels, Gordimer has demonstrated the atrocities of racial segregation against blacks and the lust for power in whites. This study examines the origins and gradual development of apartheid in South Africa, using the given facts and selected novels. The paper has investigated the calamities of liberal whites who supported the anti-apartheid movement.