Burger’s Daughter
Overview
This is a story of a woman named
Rosa Burger born in South Africa
She is the daughter of two white,
anti-apartheid activists both of
whom are arrested for their
activism and communism
Both of Rosa’s parents die, her
father dies while he is in prison
Overview con’t
 There was an expectation that Rosa
would follow in her parent’s foot steps
 Rosa was uncertain of the direction of
her life
 She tries to travel, study law etc but she
is on “a list” that restricts her
movements and opportunities
 Her brother drowns in the pool and her
adopted black brother, Baasie,
disappears
Overview con’t
Rosa eventually gets a passport
and travels to Europe
While in London she is re-united
with her adopted brother Baasie
She eventually returns to South
Africa and is arrested in 1977
because she is on “the list”
Strangers in Their Own Country
“A ‘place’; somewhere to belong,
but also something that establishes
one’s lot and sets aside much to
which one doesn’t belong.” (149)
‘house’/’home’ vs. ‘place’: the
language suggests the barriers that
exist between the white activists
and the black South Africans
Strangers con’t
 Even the white activists, who are under
surveillance by their own country, are
still more at home
 Black South African boxers have to fight
as foreigners against white South
Africans
– “he has to fight as a stranger in his own
country, a foreigner, he’s a ‘Zulu’ or a
‘Msutu’, not a South African like the white.”
(152)
– This concept can be applied to black South
Africans in general
Strangers con’t
“the physical divide of clean streets
become rutted roads and city
centres become veld dumped with
twisted metal and perpetual autumn
of blowing paper” (149)
The fundamental division between
white and black South Africans
prevents white activists from truly
understanding the hardships that
the blacks face
Strangers con’t
Rosa, of her understanding of the
way of life in these
neighbourhoods, says, “I used to
know, or think I knew” (150)
– She is beginning to re-evaluate and
question her understanding of life as a
black South African – the
understanding she thought she had
because of her connection to their
community via her white activist
parents
“White Liberalism” vs. Black
Nationalism:
 Orde Greer defines white liberalism:
“white liberalism will sacrifice the long
odds on attaining social justice and
settle for letting blacks into the
exploiting class. The ‘enlightened’
government crowd will sacrifice the long
odds on maintaining complete white
supremacy and settle for propping up a
black middle class whose class interests
run counter to a black revolution.” (156)
Black Nationalism
Duma Dhladhla:
He does not want help from whites:
“we don’t need their solutions.”
(163)
“All collaboration with whites has
always ended in exploitation of
blacks”
• Eg. Black police
A Race Struggle or a Class
Struggle:
Duma Dhladhla:
– Lumps all whites together and all
blacks together
– “It’s not a class struggle for blacks,
it’s a race struggle” (163)
– It is all whites’ intention to exploit
blacks, even if they don’t know it
Race Struggle con’t
Rosa’s activist parents were
communists and were convinced
that oppression was the result of
class conflict
– “in that house where I grew up there
was no guilt because it was believed it
was a ruling class and not a colour
that whiles assumed responsibility. It
wasn’t something bleached into the
flesh” (161)
Race Struggle con’t
However, there is a contradiction
here because her family was of a
higher social class, yet they did not
feel guilty as members of the ruling
class
Rosa – The Trouble with Activism
Gordimer provides detailed
background on Lionel’s work for
the anti-apartheid movement
A legacy for Rosa to be a leader of
the movement?
The refusal of the savior complex
Rosa’s relationship with the activist
movement
The Trouble with Activism con’t
Her resistance to the conflation of
her father as a martyr of the
movement
Unavoidable celebration of Lionel
Burger’s life, no matter where Rosa
travels
“…whatever you whites touch, it’s a
takeover” (321)’
The Trouble with Activism con’t
Gordimer shows the problems of
activism for the sake of the
disenfranchised. Do white voices
overpower the black population
advocating for their own rights?
Rosa’s Relationship with Men
The nature of Rosa’s relationship
with various men reflect an
important theme in the book
Theme: the struggle between the
public and the private self, between
social vs. personal needs
Noel De Witt
An associate of her father’s that
she had to pretend to be engaged
to so that he could pass along
information to her father through
her
Rosa’s duty as a daughter helping
out her father’s cause, to play her
role, vs. the real feelings she had
for Noel
Noel De Witt con’t
“I did…what was expected. I was
not a fake. Once a month I sat as
they had sent me to take their
messages and receive his, a female
presented to him with the smiling
mouth, the gazing yet evasive eyes,
the breasts drooping a little as she
hunched forward, a flower standing
for what lies in her lap.” (68)
Conrad
 One of the “hangers-on” of the Burger
household who eventually becomes one
of Rosa’s lovers, part one of the book
addresses him
 Not affiliated with any politics, very
egocentric, fascinated with what went on
in the Burger household, contrasts
Rosa’s family always living for their
cause, for their revolution, with hi own
upbringing, living for himself alone
Conrad con’t
 He says to her, “I have the impression
you’ve grown up entirely through other
people. What they told you was
appropriate to feel and do. How did you
begin to know yourself? You go through
the motions…what’s expected of you.”
(46)
 Conrad’s self-centeredness is
juxtaposed with the expectations that
Rosa is supposed to fulfill
Marcus “the Swede”
Another of Rosa’s lovers, who
comes to South Africa because he
wanted to make a film about Lionel
Burger
Rosa has a physical relationship
with him, no emotion involved
Marcus con’t
 “Perhaps, from his safety, from his
welfare state where left-wing views did
not imply any endangering action, being
the lover of Lionel Burger’s daughter for
a month or two was the nearest he would
ever get to the barricades. I don’t mind.
What else was I?” (64
 Rosa feels that in her relationship with
him, she is also fulfilling a role, as
Marcus’ outlet for rebellion, as a way of
getting closer to Lionel Burger
Bernard Chabalier
 Rosa’s final lover, whom she actually
falls in love with and who urges her to
go into permanent exile in France so
they can be together.
 He tells her, “There’s plenty you can do,
Rosa. In Paris, in London, for that
matter. Enough for a lifetime. If you
must….I want to say to you, you can’t
enter someone else’s cause or
salvation…” (297)
Bernard con’t
 Again, Rosa cannot give into her
personal desire to be with Bernard,
cannot fully separate herself from her
duties to her country
 Also, it is important that Bernard is
already married. Rosa says, “There’s
nothing more private and personal than
the life of a mistress, is there?
Outwardly, no one even knows we are
responsible to each other. Bernard
Chabalier’s mistress isn’t Lionel
Burger’s daughter…” (304)
Style
What were your impressions after
reading the excerpt?
Were you confused by the
dialogue?
Were you able to get a sense of
what was going on?
Response to Gordimer’s Literary
Style
Challenging
Confusing
Frustrating
Disturbing
Slowed the pace of reading
Why did She Choose This Style?
Why did I choose this book? What
did I expect?
I wanted to read about the antiapartheid movement
I expected it to be about
– Protests
– Violence & confrontation(al)
– I expected the author and/or the
subjects to be black
Style
 Two most striking features:
1. How Gordimer writes
conversation
– No quotations makes the dialogue
between characters confusing
– Difficult to distinguish between
dialogue, narration & thoughts
2. Internalization of individual
perspective
Reason for Style Choice
Main character Rosa is drifting with
no anchor to community
Looking for her own place as an
individual, separate from the
identity of her parents
Uncertain of her loyalties and what
direction she wants her life to take
Reason for Style Choice
 The dialogue gives the reader
impression of floating in & out of
conversation
 She is present but not truly part of any
conversation
 Reflects her life, she is not truly loyal to
any doctrine despite expectations
 Without routes because of the death of
her parents and loss of her adopted
brother, Baasie
 Growing up in the shadow of her father,
the hero
Overall Effect
 Subtle
 Gordimer brings racial conflict & the
anti-apartheid movement to a personal
level
 Book does not deal with the public
exhibit of protests, riots or abuse
 Details the personal effect of racism &
the examination of Rosa’s life
illuminates the political movement of
anti-apartheid
Racism
Subtle effects of race issues hidden
around every corner in imagery &
events
– Man tries to pick her pocket in France
– Drives by location of her house
– The sound of gravel crunching
– Rosa’s trip to Europe
– Donkey being mercilessly whipped
Loyalty & Betrayal
 Loyalty & Betrayal are themes found
throughout the novel
 Activists make excuses for her lack of
loyalty to the cause
 Friend’s who were loyal to her father and
went to prison
 Father was acquitted and felt betrayed
 Father could have been Prime Minister if
he hadn’t been a traitor
 Rosa’s struggle with commitment to
“family” and community
Black Nationalism
 The debate over black athletes in South
Africa: should they strive to join white
leagues or form their own?
– Serves as an analogy for blacks in South
African society in general
 Should blacks strive for equality with
whites or for the black nationalist ideals
of black pride and independence?
 Should blacks liberate themselves or
should they accept the help of white
activists? Do they require the help of
white activists?