Gordimer Attacks South African Censorship in 2nd Norton Lecture

Nadine Gordimer, this year's Norton professor of poetry, discussed the effects of the fall of apartheid in South Africa as an "occasion for celebration" Wednesday night in Sanders Theatre.

Gordimer, the 1991 Nobel laureate in literature, focused on the end of censorship for writers and the release of imprisoned revolutionaries in her talk, the second in the annual Norton lecture series.

"Much was not spoken. Much was not written...Much of what was unknown to the public...is being told," Gordimer said.

About 350 people, most with gray hair, attended the talk, entitled "Hanging on a Sunrise: Testimony and the Imagination in Revolutionary Writings."

Gordimer said the stories of anti-apartheid activists would help South Africans remember their history and heritage.

"This testimony...is witness. This testimony is the liberation of openness," she said. "Testimony is an examination of the past...to which we all find ourselves subject."

In one amusing moment, the distinguished writer described how to use a condom as a fuse for a bomb, a technique actually used by South African revolutionaries.

"You never know when [knowing this] may come in handy," she said.

Gordimer referred to the experiences of Karl Nehas, a white South African revolutionary, to illustrate the "Cain and Abel" nature of the apartheid era.

"He was loving his people while hating what they stood for," she said. "[There were] painful divisions between us and them...dwelling inside him."

Gordimer's next lecture, about the writings of fellow Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, will be held November 2 in Lowell Lecture Hall.