Nobel Laureate in Literature to lecture at VCU

By Mary Beth Alford

RICHMOND, Va. – Nadine Gordimer, South-African novelist, short-story writer and winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature, will present a keynote address titled "The Lion in Literature" at 8 p.m. on April 5. The lecture is part of the 27th annual African Literature Association conference hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond, April 4-8.

A native South African, Gordimer is the author of 12 novels and 15 collections of short stories. Beginning with her first short-story collection, Face to Face, published in 1949, Gordimer has revealed the consequences of a racially separated society. Her first novel, The Lying Days, continued on this theme and was based largely on her own life growing up in Johannesburg. In the novel, Gordimer depicts the life of a white girl with a growing hostility toward the narrow-mindedness of small-town racist lifestyles in South Africa.

Gordimer began writing at age nine. Her first story, "Come Again Tomorrow," was published in the children’s section of the Johannesburg magazine, Forum, when she was 14 years old.

Gordimer studied in a convent school and spent a year at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. By her early 20s, she had published several stories in local magazines, as well as in the New Yorker, where she still publishes today.

In her most recent novel, The House Gun, published in 1998, Gordimer explores the violent post-apartheid society through a murder trial wherein two white, privileged liberals find it hard to face the fact that their architect-son has killed his friend. This story may become the first of Gordimer’s work to become a feature film. She recently sold the movie rights to the producers of "My Left Foot," a 1989 film that explored the life of Irish writer and painter Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Gordimer taught at several universities around the world. She also has written non-fiction books about South-African topics and issues, and has collaborated on several documentaries on South Africa, including a television film with her son, Hugo Cassirer.

Gordimer’s lecture will be held at the VCU Performing Arts Center, 922 Park Ave. The lecture is free and open to the public. Seating is limited; closed-circuit television coverage will be available in the Hibbs Building, 900 Park Ave., rooms 303 and 403.