Identity Crisis in Nadine Gordimer's July's People

Abstract

This research paper is concerned with exploring and analysing the crisis of identity in the South African society of apartheid during a transitional phase of a violent political change. Also, it exposes the social and political dichotomies inherent in the apartheid society of South Africa. The paper therefore seeks to unveil both the possibilities and obstacles to the future of South Africa's democracy. It analyses the mistakes of the past as well as the profound influence of the past in shaping the present. It focuses on racial tension, violence brought by the transfer of power to blacks and the reversal of roles and responsibilities. It further examines the contradictions of the present as a consequence of the repition of the binaries of the past that still exist in the present. Throughout July's People, Gordimer depicts a situation of political impasse between the overthrow of the previous white supremacist regime and the emergence of black majority rule. Gordimer uses uncertainties, anxieties, contradictions and ambiguities that characterize the situation to foreground her views on racial unity incumbent upon a redefinition of identities within the new social and political forces. While she acknowledges the inevitability of the end of white rule, she is doubtful of the future in terms of what it holds for and indeed has to offer different races as well as their roles and responsibilities in a new emerging complex society