Abstract
In the 1980s, the criticism of Nadine Gordimer's fiction was dominated by symptomatic historicist readings, despite the obvious modernist provenance of her novels. Using Stephen Clingman's scholarship as a point of departure, this article seeks to clarify some of the ways in which this contradiction has compromised commentary on her work. It also demonstrates that Gordimer's oeuvre, essays and public pronouncements contributed to the scholarly confusion. I will argue that, among its other consequences, her dual commitment to Marxist teleology and high-cultural modernism forecloses on the future she can imagine for white (South) Africans living in postcolonial contexts or in the post-apartheid dispensation. This limitation is examined through an analysis of two of her novels, A Guest of Honour (1971) and Get a Life (2005).
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