The Nadine Gordimer collection comprises mainly correspondence with her publishers as well as some general correspondence relating to many important events and activities in her life. The records of the Congress of South African Writers of which Nadine Gordimer was a founding member, are also part of this collection. Other documents include: typescripts of some of her novels, public lectures and speeches, reviews of her literary works (novels, short stories and essays), records relating to the awards given to Nadine Gordimer for her work and achievements, including the 1991 Nobel Prize for literature, photographs and documents on Nadine Gordimer's membership and work for various world organizations such as UNESCO. The collection was deposited in the Historical Papers Research Archive by Nadine Gordimer in 2012.
Nadine Gordimer writes this insightful paper on the key concepts of "relevance" and "commitment" in relation to black and white writers. She argues that black writers write from their communities and have daily lives which are embedded within relevant contexts. So too, their commitment to black liberation is innate. She suggests that white writers ought to break out of white value systems and a false consciousness to create relevant art and to openly admit that their experience as being white is of a different order to being black. These are the imperatives which both black and white writers face. The whole aim of art, in its attainment of truth and essence, requires the white writer to attain a true consciousness so that both black and white writers may work for the same end.
