How I found related manuscripts...
Step 1.
I located the Lilly Library Website. It is very helpful and although it doesn't list everything the Lilly has it has most of it. I went to the collections tab and did a search of "apartheid". This is the most common theme in Gordimer's work and figured would be my best chance at finding others writing about similar topics. This returned a search of lots of Nadine Gordimer papers, but one other author named Athol Fuggard. He is a playwright who is also from South Africa, and resided in Cape Town.
Step 2.
Went to the Lilly. I asked to speak with a "reference librarian". I told her about my previous research online. I asked her if she had any other suggestions. She told me to look in the Lilly guides for my keyword apartheid--she said that some general topics have guides to where and what authors in the Lilly. Sadly, they did not have mine. I continued on with my quest of Fugard MSS. I looked in the guides to the Fugard Mss. and found that he had correspondence with Nadine Gordimer. I pulled that folder and looked at the letters from Gordimer. They seemed to be very good friends, and Gordimer was a fan of his plays and found them to be very moving. There were two letters in total, but also letters from a woman named Mary Benson who wrote Nelson Mandela's biography and was a political activist.
Fugard's work illustrates the political and social dilemmas of living under the apartheid system in South Africa. This means that I have found related materials in the Lilly and thus succeeded in my task for Phase II.
In case anyone is interested. This was found in the Fugard MSS. Box 1, Folder 10. He was born in 1932 and lived in Cape Town. Gordimer considered him a close friend and ally in their struggle against apartheid.
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AJ, that's some good sleuthing. I hadn't known about the Fugard MSS, so I'm glad you tipped us to that. It's not often that we get to see the people and texts that influenced the authors we read. From what you can tell, did Gordimer and Fugard share any literary strategies in common?
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I think it's really interesting that the related author you found is a male author. We've been talking a lot about women writers and their perspectives, so it might be interesting to look at the similarities and differences between the writing of Gordimer and Fugard. Since they wrote in the twentieth-century, how mgiiht a comparison of their works possibly differ from a comparison of the works of men and women in earlier centuries?
ReplyDeleteWow I am so amazed that you found such helpful information. I find the Lilly library to be quite intimidating sometimes, but it seems as though you have mastered the art of searching the Lilly. The reference librarian sounds helpful. If I have trouble searching for something, now I know who to ask for help. Thanks.
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