New Historicism in J. M. Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer

The main objective behind this book is to conduct a comparative study of selected novels by J. M. Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer in the light of New Historicism to illustrate if they have similar or different points of view in this connection. It investigates the peculiar role of New Historicism in tackling the thorny issues predominating in apartheid and post-apartheid eras. The novelists under study are very concerned with the concept of power and the interrelation between textuality and historicity which are the main theoretical premises in NewHistoricism. From this point they discuss religion silence disappearance language and land as forms of struggle to gain power. Moreover they examine intertextuality and its relation to the new historicist approach. The study concludes that Coetzee and Gordimer successfully adopt the new historicist approach in their novels through giving an account of the power shift between whites and blacks in South Africa in apartheid and post-apartheid eras. Moreover they are highly skillful in tackling the interrelation between the textuality of history and the historicity of text through employing the intertextual references in their narratives.