Representation of Post-Apartheid Social Reality after the Collapse of Racism in Nadine Gordimer’s No Time Like the Present

Abstract

The essay demonstrates that a literary writer is not just an advocate for the ideal life but is also capable of reflecting how life could be lived by confronting potentially emergent social changes. Drawing on theoretical and methodological tools of Faircloughian critical discourse analysis and using Nadine Gordimer’s No Time Like the Present, a novel that represents post-apartheid social realities as its data source, the essay shows that, after the collapse of apartheid, many problems remain with which South Africa must contend. Gordimer shows that post-apartheid South Africa must gradually extract itself from the psychological fangs of apartheid and make the transition to democracy. She draws attention to the benefits of the repeal of the racist laws of the apartheid regime and the need for democratic governance to have direct impact on the people. The essay concludes that with another twenty years from now, a vision Gordimer tenaciously holds to in her narrative, post-apartheid South Africa should rank among other democratic nations.