18 Nadine Gordimer : July’s People

Ms. Kirti Nakhare

About the author and Background:

In this module we will be learning about Nadine Gordimer’s biographical details, her works, influences and the background in which July’s people is situated

About the Author: The beginnings:

“White South Africans in a way are born twice, they have the white world which they are born into and then as they grow up, they develop an understanding of the real South Africa, the real Africa. She further adds, “If you had any intelligence, you began, even as a child to question everything about the way you were living.”(said Gordimerin a BBC interview Hard Talk ,Part 1).This helps us in positioning Nadine Gordimer and provides insights into the socio-political influence on her writings.

Born in a racially divided South Africa on 20 November,1923,at Springs near Johannesburg to immigrant parents (Nadine’s mother, Nan Myers, born in England, and her father, Isidore Gordimer, was a Jew, who emigrated from Lithuania at the age of thirteen),Gordimer grappled with the question of identity from early on. She grew up in a small mining town in Transvaal, amidst late-colonial world social conventions.

The world at Witwatersrand:

She attended the University of Witwatersrand in Johanessburg in 1946, where she met young, South African black males, who were like-minded, black writers, who like her had just begun writing. For the first time, she met blacks, who were not servants, whom she could identify with, more than the whites in her small town. (My paraphrase of excerpts of interview – Hard Talk–Part 1,BBC)

‘Becoming’ a writer:

She credits her ‘becoming’ a writer to the privilege that only white kids could enjoy. Her enrolment as a six year old at the local municipal library by her mother,introduced her to the world of books. Dominic Head further draws our attention to one event in Gordimer’s child hood that received much attention- the heart condition in young Nadine that restricted her childhood activities ,that led her to find company and consequently self -identity in books.

Influence of marginality on fiction:

Born in South Africa, she was not the same kind of stranger as a European from Europe. Her marginalised position, influences the Africa that she creates. Susan Greenstein echoes these thoughts when she states that,“Gordimer’s fiction inhabits a very different Africa—the barren world of white colonialism and the even bleaker terrain of the modern apartheid state which superseded it.”

About her works:

In June 1937, at the age of thirteen, Nadine Gordimer’s first published fiction appeared2. Since 1949, Gordimer has published across genres3 .Literary recognition for her accomplishments culminated with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991.

“Throughher fiction, she has become ‘the interpreter of South Africa’, as over the years, her country has marched down its doom-ridden slope of apartheid.” (Clingman -Introduction-The Essential Gesture)

Activist and Teacher:

She travelled widely,especially in Africa, but Johannesburg remained her home.She was a visiting lecturer at many universities including Harvard and Princeton(Head, Chapter 1). In South Africa, she joined the African National Congress when it was still listed as an illegal organization by the South African government. (Wästberg, Per,2001).Gordimer saw the ANC as the best hope for reversing South Africa’s treatment of black citizens.

Censored ,Banned,Gagged:

An activist and writer throughout her life,several of her works were banned,censored under the apartheid and post-apartheid era. She has written extensively on this issue in several of her essays,especially,Censored,Banned Gagged in the collection The Essential Gesture(1988).

July’s People was also banned under apartheid, and faced censorship under the post-apartheid government as well ( BBC News , 22 April,2001), a provincial education department temporarily removed July’s People from the school reading list, along with works by other anti-apartheid writers,(News24.com, 19 April 2001),describing July’s People as “deeply racist, superior and patronizing”(The Hindu, 1 August 2004.)—a characterization that Gordimer took as a grave insult, and that many literary and political figures protested.(News24.com, 19 April 2001)

Activism:

In the 1990s and 21st century, Gordimer was active in the HIV/AIDS movement, addressing a significant public health crisis in South Africa.5

Gordimer’sNon-fiction and July’sPeople:

 Living in the Interregnum and July’s People:

Gordimer’s fiction is accompanied by an extraordinary body of non-fictional writing.6July’s People(1981),has its roots in the essay titled ‘Living in the Interregnum’. The novel was published thirteen years before the official demise of apartheid. The questions that Gordimer concerns herself with in the essay are expoundedin great depth in the novel.

Questions like:

What would happen to the whites when the apartheid regime goes away? How could the miniscule section of society of whites, that plans to stay on,be of help to the new collective life within new structures? Also,how the whites need to discard their racistlenses and perceive the world afresh,while the whole society is being restructured in black consciousness.

She felt that the attitude of the white South Africans had to undergo a sea change: As the South African poet, Mongane Wally Serote wrote:

Blacks must learn to talk; whites must learn to listen. (Gordimer, Living in the Interregnum, pg. 261)

White Liberals and Material well-being:

It’s interesting to quote Ali Erritouni’sobservations in this context, where he perceptively,presents Gordimer’s stand on the white liberals , “Gordimer criticizes the white South African liberals for failing to recognize that their material well-being owes a great deal to the discriminatory policies of apartheid. Although they reject the color bar, white liberals, she finds, resist redistribution of South Africa’s material resources.”

The intertwining of personal and political:Personal is political:

Dominic Head remarks that, Gordimer’s career is one where the ‘private and public realms are intertwined.’

Her creations are not a mere response to the political events taking place in South Africa ,but reflect her on-going development and innovation in literary form, the reader benefits as he gets a clear picture of the historical episode in the 20th century political history.

Robert Greene states:

“Finally, when the history of the Nationalist Governments from 1948 to the end comes to be written, Nadine Gordimer’s shelf of novels will provide the future historians with all the evidence needed to assess the price that has been paid.”(Head,Chapter 1).

Novel as a representation of history:

Gordimer herself says that the novel “can present history as historians cannot”(Gugelberger, para 6,line 12) The political background to July’s People:

Soweto Revolt, Afrikaans and July’s People:

It would be judicious to note the specific political milieu in which, Burger’s Daughter (1979) and July’s People (1981) were set. These works appeared after the terrible children’s crusade of 1976, the Soweto uprisings led by school-age protestors seeking to purify the consciousness of their elders. The proverbial last straw on the camel’s back, proved to be the government decision of using Afrikaans instead of English as the language of instruction in some African schools, thus restricting the access of the blacks to the wider world and forcing them to learn the native language of apartheid. Thus, both the novels are influenced by these developments,consequently, translating in a major shift in Gordimer’s view of her situation  as a South African and a writer. (Greenstein, Susan pg.228) Political and historical reflections in Gordimer’s works-

Move from liberalism to radicalization:

Gordimer’s progression along history,providing an insider’s view has been captured by Stephen R.Clingman.He demonstrates the author’s progression from liberalism to radicalization.

Gordimer’s Realism:

Clingman refers to the realism in Gordimer’s fiction as “settler or fractured realism”, as the dilemma of a white progressive writer who is unable to join the forces of the oppressed bears on the kind of realism that Nadine Gordimer masters.

The final movement:

A tireless crusader, Gordimer died in her sleep on 13 July 2014 at the age of 90. (Smith, David ,The Guardian)

Nadine Gordimer – July’s People

In this quadrant we would be introduced to the important characters in the novel July’s People:

July:

The caretaker, host and provider:

July is the black house boy serving the Smales. It is after him that the novel takes its title.19July accommodates theSmales familyat his native place, when a civil war rages in Johanessburg.

He takes good care of the Smales family. He keeps flitting between huts with food, provisions and other requirements,however, with anattitude of service not servility.A witness to the events ‘back home’,July is aware,thatthings are not the same anymore. The whites  have lost whatever they have.

Switching roles:

He is able to switch roles dextrously. At his native place,he is called Mwawate, he has responsibilities towards hisfamily, which are fulfilled by the money that he sends home.The restricting rules of apartheid have forced people like July, to lead a circumscribed life,where every month their existence is validated by their white master’ssignatures on their passes.

July’s working relations:

The liberal Smalesare solicitous and are sure that their servant is content.Julykeeps referring to himself as their boy, especially during his confrontations with Maureen, as he doesn’t wish to break the hierarchy and he doesn’t wish to enter any ‘other relationship’ with the whites. As he has recognisedthat the base of their relationship is purely materialistic.

Power Play:

TheSmalessquirm at the thought of relinquishing one of the symbols of power i.e. the bakkie to July, who actually uses it to fulfil their needs.

The apparent shift in power from Smaleses’ to July forms the crux of the narrative and the incessant mental and verbal battles between Maureen and July serve as the ‘new battle ground’. The confrontations between Maureen and July finally end with July expressing his innermost self in his mother tongue which although she doesn’t follow, paradoxically,force her to confront the real July in a language incomprehensible to her.

2.1.5: Duty bound:

The movement from Johanessburg to his native place reveal an entirely new side to July. Here,he learns to drive the bakkie as he knows there are no white policemen to regulate his behaviour. He does his duty of taking care of the Smales untiringly, all through.

BamfordSmales:The interregnum and Bam:

An architect by profession,BamfordSmales is pushed into passivity in the interregnum. Unlike Maureen who visits the past to make peace with the present,Bam doesn’t feel he has been guilty at all. He vainly tries to consolidatehis male role as defined by patriarchy by rigging up the water tank and by killing the wart hog family thus providing a feast to the entire village.He is horrified by the smashed pig’s skull. He is able to identify with the disfigured animal as we see in the novel he experiences a similar loss of face and self.

Symbols of Power:

The bakkie and the shot-gunwhich are the focus of power belong to Bam.The keys to the bakkie, prove to be the ‘boneofcontention’ and at the same time bare their true selves in the interregnum.

Moral and spiritual vacuity:

It is convenient for Bam to show academic interest in African town life and present scholarly papers on it, but it is difficult to adjust in the position that black South Africans have lived for ages. The dissonance and complete breakdown in the Smaleses’ relationship especially during the testing time,bares the moral and spiritual vacuity in their lives.

Bam’s fall from grace:

Bam’s shivering hands at the loss of his guncapturehis helplessness and resigned acceptance of the situation,which further lower himin the eyes of his wife and children.

Towards the end when he feeds the kids in Maureen’s absence,it is the final acceptance of his inadequacy. Andre Brink states that all that is open to him is the in this final breakdown is to assume the role the “system” has allocated to the female. Bam’s story in the narrative thus comprises a fall from masculine grace.

Maureen Smales:

2.3.1: Maureen’s predicament:

Maureen Smalesis the major consciousness of the narrative and the most interesting character. In the interregnum there is an ‘explosion of roles’. This is difficult for Maureen to accept as previous titles do not hold any longer,due to which a loss of power and a resultant vacuity is experienced.The daughter of a shift boss, wife of an architect,Maureen has a respectable social standing. “Maureen is a white female, liberalas limited as all liberals are in Gordimer’s view.”

2.3.2. Shattering illusions:

Maureen shares a formal relationship with July. She feels she is very democratic with July. However, this illusion is broken by July through all the confrontations that take place between them.Andre Brink suggests that Maureen derives power from the fact that she is white. (pg.167)She treats July like a child. The language that she uses to communicate with him is very objective and to the point.

Re-visiting Guilt:

The period that she spends at July’s native place forces her to revisit her past guilt, including, all instances of improper behaviour with the blacks,be it by her father,when he speaks disrespectfully to the boys in the mines or by her when she gives July the ugly things that she doesn’t require.She repents not having learnt Fanaglo.In the course of the novel,we witness Maureen introspecting that takes her through a gamut of emotions ranging from anger,jealousy, fear, hatred and love.

The final escape:

However, this doesn’t help in accepting her situation,on the contrary, it disconnects her from all her relations thus reflecting a lack of inner strength in handling crisis. Finally,she runs like an animal, working on instincts towards an uncertain source of hope that arrives in the form of a helicopter.

TheSmaleses’ Children:

2.4.1: The only ray of hope:

The Smaleses’ children do not face an identity crisis as the seniors. They are the only ray of hope –providing hints of possibility of a post-revolutionary rebirth. They make friends, learn local expression ,mannerisms and learn to eat with their hands.Their love for July, remains constant.

July’s wife Martha and hismother:Martha has accepted July’s absence, in fact,finds his presence strange. She has adapted to the situation. July’s mother is wary of the whites, she feels they are not to be trusted. She leads a life of harmony with nature.

Nadine Gordimer – July’s People

In this quadrant we will be analysing the plot:

3.1. Plot Construction:

 The position of the Smales:

‘Caught between two worlds, one dead and the other powerless to be born.’

These lines from The Grand Chartreuse, by Mathew Arnold aptly sum up the state of the white Smaleses’ family,that has fled Johannesburg and has sought refuge in their black male servant, July’s, native place. With the civil war raging in Johanessburg,the position of the white South Africans is precarious.

“It’s (July’s People) setting during an imagined revolutionary war of the future offers a context in which white power is tottering,if not already fallen.”

The journey:

The family leaves in a yellow bakkie.Armed with money and basics liketoilet paper rolls, Malaria pills(that are looted from a pharmacy by Maureen, when the shops are attacked), the shot-gun and radio,the family sets out on a ‘forced quest’.

July’s loyalty:

July has served the family for over fifteen years. The Xhosa cook ,Nora ,who has been with the Smaleses’ leaves them when misfortune visits, however, July, decides to be their man Friday.He suggests spontaneously: ‘—We can go to my home.—‘(July’s Peoplepg.11)

The Smalesare accommodated in July’s grandmother’s hut. The well-to-do Smales find it difficult to adjust in the utterly unhygienic and impoverished conditions.

 Maureen’s coping mechanism:

Maureen Smales resorts to visiting her past to make sense of the present as that is what is certain. July, in spite of mild remonstrations from his family, continues to be the host and provider to the Smales.

An explosion of roles:

Nevertheless, things are not the same. ‘An explosion of roles’, has taken place.The three days and three nights journey in the bakkie, with Maureen and the kids cowering on the floor, prove that the whites are indeed powerless. July knows this fact very well. For instance, when his grandmother asks him to be wary of the whites, he tells her that, “—They can’t do anything. Nothing to us anymore.

The white male:

Bam Smales, an architect by profession tries to establish his superiority by rigging up a water tank and shooting a wart hog family with his gun, thus providing a small feast to the villagers.However, this is all the ‘white male’ can do there. He lives in the constant fear of being spotted by the villagers or outsiders. As days pass by,he slips into passivity as he has failed as his family’s provider.

The bakkie:

The first thing that July does, is take charge of the bakkie to visit the Indian grocery stores that is at a distance.The keys remain with him, this is what becomes the bone of contention,due to which cracks start appearing in the ideal relationship that July shares with the Smales.

Bam’s reaction:

The first time, he keeps the keys with him and takes the bakkie without informing the Smales, Bam remarks: “–I would never have thought he would do something like that. He’s always been so correct.”— (pg.58) Up to this point in the narrative there is no dissonance intheir relationship with July,although Bam feels the slow slipping of power, Maureen is not hit by it yet.

The confrontations:

This is followed by confrontations between Maureen and July, wherein the veneer of liberalism that Maureen wears ,is brutally torn asunder. With each confrontation she experiences the peeling of the layers of sophistication,goodness that she has worn all along.

characters. In Maureen’s case the progression is from having to being. In July’s case the progression from July to Mwawate.Ironically,their attempts at redefining themselves are conditioned by the role-playing of patriarchy.Two of the confrontations are triggered overtly by the loss of possessions(the bakkie and the gun),both strongly identified with male power, which have become crucial to the self- definition of the white family.(Brink,pg.170)

Maureen’s accusations:

The first confrontation between July and Maureen takes place, she experiences a sadistic triumph when she asks one of her children to ask July to see her. “—Go and say I want to see him.—‘’(pg.68)

She finds that July’s gestures have changed. When Maureen calls him to give the keys, firstly his hands stretch in a gesture of receiving, later they recall themselves and thumb and fingers of the right hand simply hook the bunch with a jingle from her fingers.

— “You don’t like I must keep the keys. Isn’t it? I can see all the time, you don’t like that.’’(Pg.69)

Maureen accuses July of having deserted Ellen, July’s town woman. July in turn,accuses Maureen of not understanding and trusting him. Maureen uses simple and concrete language while communicating with July8.

July gives a fitting reply about Ellen to Maureen and walks away with the key.

From here on small cracks turn into big fissures.

July a house boy:

The next confrontation takes place, when Maureen wanders towards the vehicle that July is working on. Maureen questions July, whether he is scared that she would reveal to his wife about his town woman, Ellen.July is infuriated and says there’s nothing to tell, as he was her houseboy of fifteen years and she was satisfied with him.

By now Maureen is unsteady with the subservient relation that she is entering with her servant. This kind of a relation she didn’t share even with Bam. It is then that Maureen tells him directly:

—You don’t have to be afraid. He won’t steal it from you.—(pg.101)10 3.12: The revelation:

The final confrontation is when, the gun along with the cartridges, get robbed from the thatched roof of the house, Bam’s hands start shivering at the loss of the last symbol of authority about which Maureen feigns ignorance and she sets out to question July.

Their last confrontation takes place, when she accuses him of having designs on the bakkie. She gets hysteric and there is high drama. July for the first time, speaks in his own language which although she doesn’t understand, she follows what he means. He speaks from where he is seated, from his own place. He accuses her of not having recognised him, she couldn’t, as she was not his people. Also that, ‘his measure as a man was taken elsewhere’ and that she has no grasp on his real identity.’

The titular head:

The meeting with the chief is an unnecessary element .The chief is a titular head, with no tangible powers. The chief wants a white vantage point of view on what’s going on in ‘Jew burg’.

 Maureen’s past:

This novel ,situated in the interregnum, forces Maureen to introspect, she is reminded of the guilt that she bears in mind.

Maureen backtracks to her childhood as she enters a hut with medals and medallions, received by Boss Boys, on the settlement. Maureen is then transported to her past, where she enjoys a privileged position as the shift bosses daughter.

The breakdown in relationships:

The novel witnesses break down of several relationships; Maureen and Bam, they completely stop communicating, the intimacy shared at Johannesburg is lost, in fact, at a point in the novel , they are described as ‘divorced people meeting on a regular day to keep up a semblance of a family life’.

Physical repulsion:

Physical ugliness perhaps is a reflection of themind. We witness Maureen in the rawest forms, unhappy with her physical looks. Similarly, the coarse andunpleasant side of life is revealed, the test – which Maureen is unable to pass, she finally buckles under pressure and is ready to give herself up to unknown forces present in the helicopter, that appear at the end of the novel.

Children,a solace:

The only ray of hope in the novel is the children who adapt well to the situation. They make friends, also learn the local expressions and language. Their love for July, remains constant all through, since their love is of the purest form untainted by capitalist and materialistic forces.

The political situation in the background:

All through the novel Gordimer doesn’t refer to the actual violence that takes place at Johannesburg. It is only through,bit and pieces of radio coverage,that we come to know about the unstable political situation.

Apartheid akin to Hiroshima bombings:

Gordimerpresents the violence done to individual human identity by the apartheid system and to highlight the cruelty of it all through July’s tormented mutations. July is caught between  his conflicting roles as Johannesburg servant and as dominant male in his own village society,where he is the father of a family and his mother’s only provider. In fact, July’s real, native name is not known to the Smales.

Gordimer’s work – July’s People, is complex, a scathing commentary on the white liberals,indeed powerful!

Nadine Gordimer – July’s People

In this quadrant,we will be evaluating themes that are central to the discussion of the novel:

4.   Themes and Concerns in July’s People:

Communication as a theme:The centrality of communication:

Several critics of the novel have remarked on the centrality of the theme of communication and language in July’s People. Language occupies a major role in any revolutionary change. Head suggests however, “no blue print for a common language emerges from the events of the book- indeed, the focus is consistently on the failure of language; but the emergence of the need for change does, at least, emerge from an analysis of the failure.”

Communication ‘re-defined’:

The inadequacy of language is revealed , when Maureen realises how baseless her belief in having ‘understood’ July in the past is, as when she finally seems to have understood him, it is in a language that is completely unknown to her. The final confrontation reveals the absolute need for communication where Mwawate lashes out at Maureen in his own mother tongue, which she although doesn’t follow,she understands.

Learning Fanaglo:

Maureen realises that it would have been more pragmatic to have learnt Fanaglo (the black lingua franca of the mines), than having learnt ballet (pg.45) that could have helped her assimilate well with July’s the people. She reiterates this fact towards the end of the novel , where she curses herself for not having learnt the ‘despised Fanaglo’.

Death ofcommunication :

The break -down in communication between the Smales is also one of the main concerns of the novel that is the ultimate signifier of the death of their relationship. 12 More than having a common language ,it is the desire to communicate that is dead, that signals the fossilization  of the relationship.

Disconnected:

Martha and July don’t really share anything common. They lead disconnected lives, both are used to each-others absences. In the midst of the conversation with July, she finds that he has trailed off, however, she doesn’t know, where to find him. His other life is known to her only through pictures, the context to which remains unknown.

 Connections:

On the other hand children offer some hope , they assimilate the culture along with the language, something that has not been attempted by the elders. Gina makes friends with Nyiko and learns their language and uses it in the form of a private talk between Nyiko and herself. (pg.106)

Gender roles in July’s People:Patriarchy and apartheid:

Andre Brink has carried out a perceptive study on the gender roles in the novel. According to him the roles assigned to the white and black,male and female,have been predefined by patriarchy. In the South African context present in July’s People, patriarchy coincides and goes hand in hand with apartheid.

Dual displacement:

At the very outset in the novel there is not only a territorial displacement but also two gender displacements. (Brink, pg. 169) Gender roles are blurred wholly and so are the boundaries between white/black and male /female. As the narrative unfolds and its space becomes more and more clearly defined by patriarchy, we witness an uneasy gendering.

“What July performs is not just the function of a servant (a man reduced to a boy) but of a female within patriarchy; if Maureen appears unsexed with her association with “their kind” it is only through her association with the male in the couple, her female function assumed  by black male, she is herself (temporarily) admitted to the status of power of maleness.” (Brink, pg.169)In fact, the race and gender card are used by Maureen and July out of desperation to get even with each other.

 Absence filled by matriarchy:

The subservient role played by black male characters as the Madam’s ‘good boy’, deprive the male of much authority is explored well by Bailey. (Brink, pg.167)This role playing by the black man creates a vacuum of power which can be filled by matriarchal, rather than the traditional patriarchal interventions. July’s women carry out the roles assigned to them by patriarchy, at the same time , they establish a separate identity challenging patriarchy in their own terms. The presence of male only in the form of money sent every month, forces the women to fulfil their otherwise latent potential. July still wields power among his women but his status is increasingly precarious. His wife, for instance ,wants to know to whose bidding he moved around, whose orders he followed at Johanessburg.

Purposeful choice of gender:

Sheila Roberts has observed that the choice of black male servant is a purposeful choice on part of Gordimer.As it adds another dimension of race and gender, to the already complex relationship between the blacks and whites .

Stripping of roles in the interregnum:

Situated in the interregnum, the novel undertakes a study of stripping of roles.Bam’s story in the narrative comprises mainly “a fall from masculine grace”.Maureen’s resides in her attempts painfully to break out of the female constraints patriarchy has assigned to her.16The interregnum poses a new challenge for July’s black women as they have to get used to July’s presence and have to redefine their roles accordingly.Brink suggests that Maureen power/authority,is derived from the fact that she is white.July’s women derive power from the fact that they are women.

Growth or regression?

All the old roles of class and race, of sex and gender have been exploded.That is the end of the interregnum and its morbid symptoms. The depressing impossibility of defining a new naked self is demonstrated.The helicopter is interpreted as an extremely aggressive male sexual symbol as a sign of optimism is outrageous.

Materialism in July’s People:Commentary on materialistic whites:

July’s Peopleis a scathing commentary on the liberal materialistic whites. Gordimerexpesses: Nothing made them so happy as buying things; they had no interest in feeding rabbits. (July’s People,pg.6)Maureen finds it difficult to accept the impoverished conditions of the rural South Africans.The Smaleses’ fail to acknowledge that their material well -being is due to the discriminatory policies of apartheid. They vainly clutch on to the vestiges of power even when they have lost everything.

Uniform erosion of values:

DominicHead ,however draws our attention to the equal dependence on commodity culture by both whites and blacks. Gordimer points that a simple post-revolutionary re birth cannot be provided by a simple return to the values of ethnic African communities as even they are tainted by the effects of capitalism,that has co -opted them into it for their selfish ends.July’s interest in the bakkie or the chief’s interest in Bam’s shot gun vouch for this.The bakkie initially represents ,white bourgeois power,is now a symbol of corruption,destructive of community action.

The Novel’s end:Flight from impasse:

The novel’s ambiguous end reflects the obscurity of the situation in which characters lose their moorings as ‘historical co-ordinates don’t fit life any longer’ (Gordimer,Living in the Interregnum). In the absence of past structures, the characters display a range of morbid symptoms. Rowland Smith suggests that flight from impasse is a common feature at the end of Nadine Gordimer’s fiction.

 Desperation:

Confronted with denial of values assumed in the past to define herself and her marriage, Maureen Smalesflees,headlong,irrationally in the final pages of the novel towards the undefined and possibly illusory escape of a lone, unidentified helicopterthat lands near the village. She has lost everything.

Maureen’s flight from her family,her past and July reveals an even more radical collapse of identity. (Pg.97,Smith).She runs away from the scene of her humiliation.

Reactions:

Andre Brink draws our attention to the fact that it is not only running that is important but what she runs from,what she runs towards, how she runs is important. Various critics have interpreted Maureen’s act of running differently. To Margaret Lenta “she is leaving,not joining” To Clingman, on the contrary “she is running from old structures and relationships

…towards her revolutionary destiny”Temple-Thurston concurs: “Running is Maureen’s first authentic action”Bailey suggests“What Maureen runs to is a return to the illusion of identity created by a world of privilege and possession. What she runs from is her failure to find any creative source for re-birth” (Brink, pg.174)

Ultimate affirmation of being:

Running is her ultimate affirmation of being. She runs away from the roles assigned to her by patriarchy.This is her choice,the choice offered by the interregnum.

Nadine Gordimer – July’s People

Glossary:

• Afrikaans /ɑːfrɪˈkɑːns/ or /æfrɪˈkɑːns/ is a West Germanic language, spoken in South Africa and Namibia, and to a lesser extent in Botswana and Zimbabwe. It is an offshoot of several Dutch dialects spoken by the mainly Dutch settlers of what is now South Africa, where it gradually began to develop independently in the course of the 18th century. Hence, historically, it is a daughter language of Dutch, and was previously referred to as “Cape Dutch” (a term also used to refer collectively to the early Cape settlers) or “kitchen Dutch” (a derogatory term used to refer to Afrikaans in its earlier days). Large numbers of Bantu- speaking and English-speaking South Africans also speak it as their second language.
• Apartheid – “apartness” in Afrikaans or to legally separate by race.
• Bantu – a general term for more than 400 ethnic groups in Africa united by a common language family.
• Interregnum:The in between place(in social, political terms) between the take-over  by  the blacks and relinquishing of power by the white South Africans.
• At another level the interregnum can be read as: a pathology of identity,a crisis of consciousness , a crisis of having and being.(Brink, pg.158)
• Patriarchy: A system that is male-centred , controlled ,organised and conducted in such a way as to subordinate women to men in all cultural domains: familial, religious, political, economic, social, legal, and artistic.

End Notes:

• In July’s People, the main protagonist Maureen’s background is similar to that of Gordimer. Maureen’s father is a shift boss on a mine,she has grown up on mining property.
• This work was ‘The Quest for Seen Gold’, less a short story than a fable, published in children’s section of the Sunday Express( Johanessburg ),13 June 1937,p.38.
• Gordimer has to her credit, twenty one volumes of short stories , fifteen novels, five essay collections, one play and four other works –two of which are documentaries. Her work has been translated into some twenty languages; she has won several of the most important literary prizes in Europe, the United States and South Africa.
• Censored, Banned Gagged ridicules the idea of censorship and banning books. In the essay she states that; people need to have free access to the ideas of their times and the accumulated ideas of the past, in order to contribute to culture and development of one’s own country, censorship and banning of literary works obliterates growth.
• In 2004, she organized about 20 major writers to contribute short fiction for Telling Tales, a fundraising book for South Africa’s Treatment Action Campaign, which lobbies for government funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and care. (Agence France-Presse, 1 December 2004)
• Her non- fictional work, primarily the essays cover a gamut of themes ranging from, essays on writings, and other writers, on South African politics, on censorship, biographical and auto biographical pieces; reviews and travelogues: these have steadily accompanied her fiction. These essays provide a background to her fiction; depict her concerns, sketch a picture of South Africa in transition and accompanying changes taking place in her attitude towards life.
• Gordimer’s liberal and humanist phase can be seen in The Lying Days and A World of Strangers.
• The post liberal phase is reflected in Occasion for Loving (1963), here she deals with social failure and failure in humanism in general. This novel is the first to express “the intense alienation of a dissenting but incapacitated white consciousness.”(Gugelberger, para 4,lines 9-10).
• The Late Bourgeois World (1966) is less linked to historical events than its predecessors. White liberal failure is discussed in both these novels.
• A Guest of Honour (1974) discusses the impact of neo-colonialism in the post-independence nations of Africa. This work undertakes class analysis.
• The Conservationist (1974), the novel for which she jointly won the Man Booker Prize in literature, focuses on the impact of the Black Consciousness Movement on progressive whites. According to Clingman this is the first book wherein white history ends and black history resumes; it is her harshest critique of liberalism.
• Post this Gordimer deals with issues of possible revolution in South Africa i.e. in Burger’s Daughter (1979) and July’s People (1981).In these novels Gordimer addresses the question unanswered in The Conservationist, “whether whites can participate in the future it predicts.’’( Gugelberger, para 5,lines 8-9).The setting of July’s People is an imagined revolutionary war of the future it offers a context in which white power is on the verge of being erased.
• These novels were followed by A Sport of Nature (1987), My Son’s Story (1990) and None to Accompany Me(1994). The House Gun (1998) was Gordimer’s second post-apartheid novel. These works were followed by The Pickup (2002), Get a Life, written in 2005 after the death of her long-time spouse, Reinhold Cassirer, is the story of a man undergoing treatment for a life-threatening disease.
• The English that July uses, is that which is used in kitchens, factories and mines. It is based on orders and responses and not on exchange of feelings and ideas.
• For the first time Maureen uses a complex word like dignity which she didn’t think he would know, it was beyond his grasp. These are desperate attempts at reinstating her superiority.
• Here it’s clearly evident that July doesn’t wish to enter into any other relationship with Maureen. He asserts his place in the hegemony by calling himself her ‘houseboy’. Read further for a detailed explanation of the role of gender ,class and race in Andre` Brinks essay Entitled Complications of Birth: Interfaces of Gender, Race and Class in July’s People.
• This reveals how important the bakkie is both to the Smales as well July. Symbolic of power, here suggestions are also made to who ‘gives’ and who ‘takes’ it. The person who relinquishes it is obviously more powerful. Here Maureen is trying to grab that place.
• Maureen is reminded of her photograph with Lydia, the house help. The photograph represents ‘White herrenvolk attitudes and lifestyles’(pg.33)- it depicts a clear demarcation between Maureen and Lydia, as it depicts, Lydia carrying Maureen’s school case on her  head, the hierarchy, a clear demarcation between blacks and whites, of which Maureen is unaware then, makes sense now.
• “There were many silences between them, when each waited for the other to say what might have to be said.”(pg.36) Bam and she were like “people in a hospital waiting-room in the small hours, not looking at one another.”(pg.48) There are moments in the novel where she can share crucial information to relieve Bam of the stress but she chooses to keep quiet. When Maureen goes out of the hut and gets drenched in the rains, she realises that July has returned with the bakkie, yet she holds back the information and chooses not to communicate this news to Bam.
• In the interregnum gender roles have slipped from their previous constraints: this is what Maureen cannot handle. She would like to escape from the master /servant relations (You are not a servant), but his choice of terminology returns to the issue of gender (I’m the boy for your house). And this is why, as a woman and not as an employer, she retaliates by threatening him with the knowledge of his “city wife,” Ellen. It touches him to the quick he now does what she has done previously, he now feels the need to shift territory from gender to race: “I think Ellen she’s go home to her auntie there in Botswana…Is quiet there for black people”
• His (July’s ) wife had the power of a whingeing obstinacy, shying away and insisting.— No,there in town. Was it the man who told you what you— It was hardly worth answering.— You know I didn’t make the food. There was the Xhosa woman ,the cook.—How must I know ,I didn’t see her—Nomvula. The one they called Nora. (pg.83)
• Sheila Roberts supports this argument with a reference to an essay entitled “Madam and Boy: A Relationship of Shame in Gordimer’s July’s People,” by Barbara Temple-Thurston , where Templeton points to the fact that in South Africa the vast majority of domestic workers are women. Roberts thus opines that Gordimer’s choice of male domestics as antagonists was motivated by the desire to imbricate the already uneasy master/servant cathexis with the dissonance of gender.” (Roberts, pg.74)
• Before their flight from Johanessburg , Maureen’s identity is defined in terms of her relation with her father husband and children. At July’s native place she experiences a movement from her previous role. Here we find she takes charge of the situation as Bam steadily slips into passivity. Maureen has to break the old stereotypical role and has to move towards a new possibility of being. Also towards the end of the novel , when Bam feeds the kids, stripped of his powers ,he is found performing the role, otherwise carried out by women in patriarchy. Through these stripping of roles, Brink questions the perversity of patriarchy.
• If in white society “the power and rights” of sexual relations are determined in master bedrooms (or in “motels with false names in the register,” in black society that power and those rights “are as formulated in a wife’s hut, and a backyard room in a city”.
• Materialism is deep rooted in Maureen it spurs her to instinctively suggest Bam to keep the smaller wart hog as “–The small one will be more tender. – ‘’
• The title of the novel is in itself confusing , where July’s people are both subjects and objects of possession, their roles and identities compromised by a patterned response produced by generations of white masters and servants. Who possesses whom becomes as confused an issue in the novel. The Smales cannot pass beyond their former relationship with July. To see him from any perspective other than that of liberal, self –confident white overlords is impossible, and that hopelessly compromised position is the impasse the novel investigates.

References:

• Clingman Stephen(Ed. and Introduction), Gordimer,Nadine’s-The Essential Gesture:  Writing, Politics and Places. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988.
• Gordimer, Nadine. July’s People. Penguin Books, 1982
• Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms-Seventh Edition-Harcourt College Publishers – ISBN:81-7867-065-8
• Head, Dominic. July’s People-Cambridge Studies In African AndCarribean Literature- Nadine Gordimer- Cambridge University Press, 1994- Printed in Great Britain at University Press, Cambridge.
• Brink, André. Complications of Birth: Interfaces of Gender, Race and Class in “July’s People”
• Source: English in Africa, Vol. 21, No. 1/2, Revisions (Jul., 1994), pp. 157-180 Published by: Institute for the Study of English in Africa, Rhodes University .Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40238728. Accessed: 25/06/2014 04:13 at The Asiatic Library,Mumbai.
• Erritouni,Ali.Apartheid Inequality and Post-apartheid Utopia in Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People.
• Research in African Literatures, Volume 37, Number 4, Winter2006, pp. 68-84 (Article)
• Published by Indiana University Press- Access Provided by University of Warwick at 01/18/12 4:53PM GMT-http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ral/summary/v037/37.4erritouni.html
• -accessedon23 June,2014 at 16: 10 hrs
• Review by: Georg M. Gugelberger .The Novels of Nadine Gordimer: History from the inside by Stephen R. Clingman ,Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des ÉtudesAfricaines, Vol. 22, No. 3, Special Issue: Current Research on African Women (1988), pp. 670-672.Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Canadian Association of African Studies. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/485964 .Accessed: 25/06/2014 04:14 at The Asiatic Library, Mumbai.
• Green, Robert. From “The Lying Days to July’s People”: The Novels of Nadine Gordimer
• Source: Journal of Modern Literature, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Spring, 1988), pp. 543-563Published by: Indiana University Press, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3831565.Accessed: 25/06/2014 04:13 at The Asiatic Library, Mumbai.
• Greenstein, Susan M. Miranda’s Story: Nadine Gordimer and the Literature of Empire
• Source: NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Spring, 1985), pp. 227-242,Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1345789
• Accessed: 25/06/2014 04:14 at The Asiatic Library,Mumbai.
• Plummer, Carolyn K. Reclaiming the Canon: Tomorrow’s South Africa: Nadine Gordimer’s “July’s People”
• Source: The English Journal, Vol. 79, No. 3 (Mar., 1990), pp. 70-73Published by: National Council of Teachers of EnglishStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/819243 .Accessed: 25/06/2014 04:12 at The Asiatic Library,Mumbai.
• Roberts ,Sheila. Sites of Paranoia and Taboo: Lessing’s “The Grass Is Singing” and Gordimer’s “July’s People”
• Source: Research in African Literatures, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 73-85Published by: Indiana University Press, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3820114 .Accessed: 25/06/2014 04:14 at The Asiatic Library,Mumbai.
• Smith, Rowland. Masters And Servants: Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People And The Themes Of Her Fiction