1 Motivation of Nadine Gordimer
The anti-apartheid movement of South Africa collapsed in the 1950s. But Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) asked herself how white people can engage in the revolution, and felt the pinch of the domestic current situation against the stream of the world and had the desire to engage in the revolution in some form. Such thinking of the author led me to stipulate that the revolution was the far-sighted risk avoidance of South Africa.
When the liberalism of white people was in palmy days, the appeal was insufficient. The reform recommendation of that time could be justified in the present day. Even if one has the motivation, the mind will go around in circles from external factors. Such a mind could be expressed only by the combination of “space and time”.
However, medical expressions complement it. The prefrontal cortex controls, more generally, the motivation, and the adaptive ability that links to the prefrontal cortex is expressed by the function of the entire brain. To consider the adaptive ability concerning “space and time” that Gordimer used to express endlessness, it is better to consider not only the function of prefrontal cortex but also the entire brain, that is, the function of every part of the body.
The novel by Gordimer that this paper is based on, speaks about one day of the hero’s past and Max’s suicide holds the key. Any present stress disorder must have appeared by the time of his suicide. For example, even if one had the motivation, the adaption to society is inhibited by the restriction of politics and law. Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) was also incarcerated for about 27 years.
花村嘉英訳(2018)「『ブルジョワ世界の終わりに』から見たゴーディマの意欲について」より translated by Yoshihisa Hanamura