“Recalling this”: Language and Irony in Nadine Gordimer’s My Son’s Story

This essay interprets Nadine Gordimer’s My Son’s Story in relation to the history of irony, focusing particularly on the ideas of Paul de Man. By considering Gordimer’s engagement with theory in essays she wrote during the novel’s composition, I argue that she acquired an appreciation for the notion that language mediates one’s relationship to reality; such a principle lets her develop the novel’s ironic conceit. The effect of the novel is to shift attention away from ethical conundrums posed by oppression to problems of representation: an effect that helps us to understand certain features of theory.