| Summary: | 碩士 === 中國文化大學 === 西洋文學研究所 === 85 === The primary purpose of this thesis is to explore the
antiapartheid discourse represented in Doris Lessing and Nadine
Gordimer's novels, The Grass Is Singing, Occasion for Loving,
and July*s People. Their works describe racial conflicts between
the black and the white, grotesque inequalities and the
anguished human situation derived from the apartheid system.
Though their plot-lines, styles, and structure treatments
are different, their works manifest remarkable similarities.
They share a common ground in revealing the horror of
apartheid. In a sense, Doris Lessing aims at the same thing as
Nadine Gordimer does. They show a grave concern on the human
situation under apartheid. To the reader, they do express the
same thing, as if the same musical work are respectively played
by two different musicians. Through reading the novels of these
two writers, my thesis attempts a delineation of the methods by
which Lessing and Gordimer resist the apartheid system. Grown up
in Southern Africa in which the root of colonialism and white
supremacy runs deep, Lessing and Gordimer have an insight into
the nature of apartheid. They witnessed how the white oppressed
the black and constructed the black*s sense of inferiority.
Because of the color of skin, the black was victimized and
degenerated as an inferior, subhuman race in this apartheid
society. The nature of apartheid was, as the matter of fact, a
colonization of consciousness and body. In the post-colonial
Africa, apartheid continuously remained as the residue of
colonialism. Through the practice of apartheid, the ruling
white restricted the black*s freedom to assert his will,
increased the social and economic inequality and maintained a
rigid division between the two races, thus enabling the white
minority to oppress the black majority. Ultimately,
apartheid resulted in the conflict, anguish and misery of both
white and the black in South Africa. For centuries, the West has
constructed the black in literary and philosophical discourse as
the racial "Other" in opposition to the western "Self." Through
the making of Other, the West elevates the position of the white
to the supreme God while debasing the black. The myth of the
white superiority not only assures the white perpetuate
superiority but also justifies the hegemonic discourse of the
West. Perceiving the evils of apartheid and the western
hegemonic ideology, the two female writers try their best to
liberate the blacks from the prison of apartheid. Moreover,
They free the blacks from the white patriarchal myth imposed on
them by the West. In addition to introduction and conclusion,
this thesis consists of three chapters which focus on the
methods by which Lessing and Gordimer*s resist apartheid and the
western hegemonic ideology. Chapter two, "Love and Sex
Relationships Across the Color Lines," is an examination of how
the interracial human contact is pertinent to the apartheid
discourse, and how it can be established as a resistance to the
apartheid system. In a racially-divided society, the human
contact and love between races are strictly prohibited.
Therefore, the possibility of love between black men and white
women under apartheid suggests a way to blur or transcend the
racial division and thus rebel against apartheid. Chapter
Three, "The Reversal of Master/Servant Relationship" discusses
the transition of power structure between the white master and
the black servant, the oppressing white and the oppressed black.
Through reversing the established, fixed superior white/inferior
black dichotomy, Lessing and Gordimer intentionally mock the
white self-acclaimed superiority and violate the apartheid code.
By revealing the heterogeneity of the oppressing and the
oppressed groups, Chapter Three offers a cross-examination of
racial domination and reflects the fluctuating border between
the oppressor and the oppressed. Chapter four, "The Subversion
of White Myth," then comes to explore the subversive potential
embedded in The Grass Is Singing and July*s People. In light of
the post-colonialism, this thesis investigates how Lessing and
Gordimer try to unsettle the white myth which sustains the
western hegemonic discourse firmly. This chapter is especially
focused on their methods of subversion of apartheid and their
concern with the oppressed blacks in Africa. Through the study
of Lessing and Gordimer*s novels, we come to realize what
apartheid is and how their antiapartheid discourse functions as
a strategy to oppose the pernicious system.
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