SEEING THE UNSEEN THROUGH INVERTED: THE POLITICS OF INVERTED NARRATION IN CONTEXT OF SOUTH AFRICAN CIVIL WAR IN NADINE GORDIMER’S “THE ULTIMATE SAFARI”

Abstract

The purpose of this research paper is to study the politics of Inverted Narration in Context of South African Civil War in Nadine Gordimer’s ‘The Ultimate Safari’ by application of Lewin’s Field Theory. This paper proves that the war is the cause of turmoil in external “boundary zone” of the system. “Field” of war is interacting with “field” of writer’s mind and fusion gives birth to technique of inversion. The external turmoil of South African Civil War and strict censorship imposed by government causes the writer to invert the obvious lens of the story into the inverted lens; a white leader’s critical narration into a black child’s innocent narration; grandmother to take the role of the grandfather; the writer from a passive narrator to an active fictional leading grandmother; to the place of man to the place of the animal; war time to the pre-civilized time and baby brother to the place of baby monkey. As a result of this narration, author reflects history of South Africa and Black race through the channel of unseen. As a whole, it proves that the politics of inverted narration lies in creation of dazzling effect to the reader and his active participation in evaluating the inverted symbols.