Loss of Identity in Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s daughter

Abstract

Loss of identity is a stark reality in postcolonial South Africa and it has found expression in artistic works. The fictionalisation of feelings of not belonging or a sense of unhomeliness is illuminated in this paper. This paper is a literary exploration of loss of identity in Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s daughter and it employ Erikson’s theory of human development as a tool to examine, discuss and explore how the concept works in Rosa Burger’s life. The concept is exacerbated by racism, apartheid and cultural and linguistic identity. Loss of identity thrives in a racially segregated environment and where there is abuse of power. Rosa runs up against the boundaries of a white male hegemony, underscoring her inability to find any space outside the ideology that defines her. It focuses on the ways in which Rosa negotiates subjectivity where she internalizes the law of the father and when she rejects her imposed identity.