UNIT 62

THE COMMONWEALTH. CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND

DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTIC VARIETIES.
INTERCULTURAL INFLUENCES AND MANIFESTA-
TIONS: THE NOVELS OF E.M. FORSTER, D. LESSING
AND N. GORDIMER.
The present unit, Unit 62, aims to provide a useful introduction to the Commonwealth from a
general overview regarding its cultural diversity and development of linguistic varieties as well
as in terms of intercultural influences and manifestations, which are namely reflected in the novels
of E.M. Forster, D. Lessing and N. Gordimer. In doing so, the unit is to be divided into three main
chapters which correspond to the three main tenets of this unit: first, Chapter 2 deals with the
entity of (1) the Commonwealth in terms of definition, origins, membership, and organization.

Secondly, Chapter 3 approaches the Commonwealth country members’ cultural diversity and
development of linguistic varieties individually. So, we shall try to present an overview of the
Commonwealth cultural and linguistic variety by addressing (1) the Commonwealth principles
and values, and how these principles and values are present in (2) the countries which founded
the Commonwealth, namely (a) Canada, (b) Australia, (c) New Zealand, (d) South Africa, (e)
India, and (f) the Caribbean Islands.

Finally, in Chapter 4 the intercultural influences and manifestations are to be found within a
literary background in the novels of E.M. Forster, D. Lessing and N. Gordimer. In general, the
literature of the time was both shaped by and reflected the prevailing ideologies of the day
which, following Speck (1998), means that this is an account of literary activity in which social,
economic, cultural and political allegiances are placed very much to the fore. In this chapter, we
shall namely deal with post-colonial literature so as to frame Forster, Lessing and Gordimer’s
literary works in an appropriate social and political context to make him coincide with the late
consequences of the British imperialism. So, we shall provide the reader with the biographies of
(1) Edward Morgan Forster, (2) Doris Lessing and (3) Nadine Gordimer in terms of life, main
works and style so as to frame their lives in an appropriate social and political context to make
him coincide with the late consequences of the British imperialism.

Chapter 5 will be devoted to the main educational implications in language teaching regarding
the introduction of this issue in the classroom setting. Chapter 6 will offer a conclusion to broadly
overview our present study, and Chapter 7 will include all the bibliographical references for
further information.

The Commonwealth of Nations refers to the “free association of sovereign states consisting of
Britain and many of its former dependencies who have chosen to maintain ties of friendship and
cooperation. It was established in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster as the British
Commowealth of Nations. Later its name was changed and it was redefined to include
independent nations. Most of the dependent states that gained independence after 1947 chose
Commonwealth membership.” Moreover, “the British monarch serves as its symbolic head, and
meetings of the more than 50 Commowealth heads of government take place every two years.”

So, regarding membership, we may define the ‘Commonwealth’ as the “association of 54 states
consulting, co-operating and working together in the common interest of their peoples and in
promotion of international understanding and world peace. With a total population of 1.7 billion
people, the Commonwealth represents almost one-third of the world’s population and one-third
of the membership of the United Nations.” (Secretariat, 2003). Organization.

The organization of the Commonwealth entity is carried out by a general board known as
ComSuper (Commonwealth Superannuation Administration), which has its origins in the
Superannuation Fund Management Board. Following www.comsuper.gov, “the Board was
formed in Melbourne on 20 November 1922 under the authority of the Superannuation Act 1922
to deal with the general administration and working of the first superannuation scheme for
Commonwealth employees. The Board directly hired staff to assist it in administering the
scheme,” and this is where the Commonwealth internal organization began.

The Commonwealth strengths lie in the following principles and values. First of all, among the
three most important principles we include (Secretariat, 2003): first, “the combination of the
diversity of its members with their shared inheritance in language, culture and the rule of law”;
secondly, “seeking consensus through consultation and the sharing of experience”; and finally,
“sharing a commitment to certian fundamental principles set out in a Declaration of
Commonwealth Principles agreed at the Singapore meeting in 1971 and in followi-up
Declarations and Communiqués.”

On the other hand, “Commonwealth ‘values’ are the principles that bind Commonwealth
member countries together and they derive from various Commonwealth Declarations and
Principles agreed upon at various Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGMs).
These values are enshrined in the 1991 Harare Commonwealth Declaration (Zimbabwe), which
enshrines common interests and a set of basic principles. At Millbrook (New Zealand) in 1995,
Heads of Government adopted an action programme to fulfil their commitment to the Harare
Principles. At Coolum (Australia) in 2002, Heads of Government committed to ‘The Coolum
Declaration on the Commonwealth in the 21st Century: Continuity and Renewal’.”(Secretariat,
2003).

Then, Commonwealth values include: “respect for diversity, human dignity and opposition to all
forms of discrimination; adherence to democracy, rule of law, good governance, freedom of
expression and the protection of human rights; elimination of poverty and the promotion of

people -centred development; and finally, international peace and security, the rule of
international law and opposition to terrorism” (Secretariat, 2003).

“The adherence to democracy, rule of law, good governance, freedom of expression and the
protection of human rights is reflected through the capacity building programme to strengthen
civil society organisations;” and by means of documenting good practice. For instance, “the
Foundation has produced a document ‘NGO Guidelines for Good Policy and Practice’ to guide
civil society organisations and is available in ten languages.” It is worth mentioning that all
these states have at some time been under British rule so in some of them, English is the first
language; others, with several different languages of their own, find English the most
convenient means of communication.

1.1. The Commonwealth: cultural and linguistic diversity.

1.1.1. Canada.

As mentioned above, Canada was given the dominion status in 1867, and by the time of the
Commonwealth founding, it was one of the state members. It is regarded as a transplanted
society (Maxwell, 1982) as well as Australia and New Zealand since the majority of its
population is of European origin and had to change the already established cultural habits in the
new land. So, it retained a non-indigenous language.

In linguistic terms, Canada has developed a type of Canadian English which is difficult for us to
understand since it is different from other North American varieties. It is regarded as a
homogeneous language, which has not been affected by its nearest linguistic neighbour,
American English. The differences lie mainly in vocabulary and pronunciation, since Canadian
spelling preserves some British forms (theatre, centre, colour, behaviour) and there are no
distinctive grammar features. We also highlight the fact that there are also several words of
Canadian origin (chesterfield).

Regarding its cultural diversity, Canada is nowadays still headed by British population (around
45%), followed by French (25%) and the rest (30%) belong to other nationalities rather than

British or French. The influence of French colonization is still present in culture, since America
has influenced this country through the media. Yet, the French-speaking population, namely set
up in Quebec, has a powerful separatist movement which addresses their affiliation to France.
No literature works are worth mentioning within the neo-colonialism movement in Canada.

1.1.2. Australia.

Following Britannica (2004), “Australia has long been inhabited by Aboriginals, who arrived
40,000–60,000 years ago. Estimates of the population at the time of European settlement in
1788 range from 300,000 to more than 1,000,000. Widespread European knowledge of
Australia began with 17th-century explorations. The Dutch landed in 1616 and the British in
1688, but the first large-scale expedition was that of James Cook in 1770, which established
Britain’s claim to Australia. The first English settlement, at Port Jackson (1788), consisted
mainly of convicts and seamen; convicts were to make up a large proportion of the incoming
settlers.”

In linguistic terms, Australian English starts in the second half of the eighteenth century when
pidgin English appeared due to the interrelationship of settlers and Aboriginals. The Aboriginal
vocabulary of Australian English has become one of the trademarks of the national language
(boomerang, jumbuck –sheep-). Yet, the number of Aboriginal words in Australian English is
quite small and confined to the naming of plants, trees, animals, and place-names. Nowadays,
though English is the official language, Australian English is known for its preserving nature,
since it still keeps eighteenth and nineteenth-century lexis from the European Continent
(Wessex, Scotland, Ireland). Moreover, it has no regional variation of accent.

Regarding its cultural diversity, since it is “the smallest continent and sixth largest country (in
area) on Earth, lying between the Pacific and Indian oceans,” its population was about
19,702,000 in 2002. Among them, “most Australians are descendants of Europeans. The largest
nonwhite minority is the Australian Aboriginals. The Asian portion of the population has grown
as a result of relaxed immigration policy. Australia is rich in mineral resources, s the country’s
economy is basically free-enterprise; its largest components include finance, manufacturing, and
trade. Formally a constitutional monarchy, its chief of state is the British monarch, represented
by the governor-general. In reality it is a parliamentary state with two legislative houses; its
head of government is the prime minister.”

1.1.3. New Zealand.

New Zealand was originally inhabited by Polinesian population which traced back to the early
Christian centuries. In the eighteenth century it was explored by J. Cook between 1769-1770
and soon it was a target for European settlement in spite of some indigenous Maori resistance.
Then the 19th century saw the arrival of catholic missionaries and English protestants and the
reorganization of New Zealand started. Subsequently, the two races achieved considerable
harmony. Yet, unlike Australia it was a free colony, as in practice it has been self-determining
since 1901.

In linguistic terms, the New Zealand language has been influenced by its Australian neighbours
(bush lawyer, bush telegraph) as well as by the Scottish language, namely in family names
(Dunedin, Murray). From Australia, many Zealanders were influenced by the native Maori
culture, hence many maori words were borrowed on making reference to animals, plants and
local trees (kiwi). In addition, Zealanders created their own vocabulary for some places, roads
and local places (lines).

Regarding its cultural diversity, New Zealand still has a certain attachment to Britain that is
unheard of Australia (BBC news) and contemporary population seem hesitant to use the
pragmatic initiative used in the eighteenth century. The cultural background in New Zealand is
actually conditioned by a society which is egalitarian in the extreme and shows a tendency
towards conformity. Yet, today Maori people are determined to make their contribution to
increase their self-respect and confidence in their own culture. Actually, Maori language is
offered in many secondary schools as an optional second language.

1.1.4. South Africa.

Before British colonization, certain highlands of East Africa attracted settlers from Europe since
these colonies were confined to coastal enclaves. British penetration of the area began at
Zanzibar in the late 19th century and before WWI most of the European conquest of Africa had
been accomplished. Actually, in 1888 the British East Africa Company established claims to
territory in what is now Kenya. British protectorates were subsequently established over the
sultanate of Zanzibar and the kingdom of Buganda (now Uganda) and in 1919 Britain was
awarded the former German territory of Tanganyika as a League of Nations mandate. Yet, all
these territories achieved political independence in the 1960s.

In linguistic terms, the development of the English language in Africa is related to the term
‘pidgin’, hence ‘pidgin English’ is commonly spoken in Africa. Traditionally, pidgin languages
are defined as those auxiliary languages that have no native speakers and are used for
communicating between people who have no common language. Actually, we find two different
English versions in Africa: East and West African English.

Regarding its cultural diversity, we highlight the fact that in all African countries the majority of
the population is indigenous, except in those African countries which belong to the
Commonwealth and have European population (Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya). Hence, the
most common population group within these countries are the ethnic groups, that is, tribes. This
means that ethnic groups have in common a sense of culture and identity, and therefore, of
distinct religion and language. The new African nations that emerged after the mid-20th century
were not based on the traditional units of the pre-colonial era. African natural resources (mining,
safari hunting) have attracted people of many different cultures speaking a variety of languages.

1.1.5. India.
Historically speaking, India is the home of one of the world’s oldest and most influential
civilisations of South Asia. By the early seventeenth century, the East India Company was
founded and attracted many European visitors up to the eighteenth century. In linguistic terms, it
was in the nineteenth century that, at the highest peak of the British empire, there was a flood of
English administrators, educators, army officers and missionaries who spread the English
language throughout the sub-continent. Hence by the turn of the century English had become
the prestige language of India.

Regarding its cultural diversity, India is regarded as a subcontinent rather than a country. Its
wide range of races, languages and religions, art and culture show the cultural wealth that has
developed over many centuries. Yet, there are still strong divisive influences such as caste, the
status of untouchability and linguistic chauvinism. Another important aspect is that over 80 per
cent of the country’s total population are Hindus, and also, that Hinduism is the unifying factor
that has kept the large mass of the peoples of India together.

1.1.6. The Caribbean Islands.

The Commonwealth Caribbean Islands.have a distinctive history. The Encyclopaedia Britannica

(2004) states that “permanently influenced by the experiences of colonialism and slavery, the
Caribbean has produced a collection of societies that are markedly different in population
composition from those in any other region of the world. Lying on the sparsely settled periphery
of an irregularly populated continent, the region was “discovered” by Christopher Columbus in
1492. Thereafter, it became the springboard for the European invasion and domination of the

Americas, a transformation that historian D. W. Meinig has aptly described as the "radical
reshaping of America."

In linguistic terms, we may highlight the fact that the tiny Indian population, once native to the
region, speak creolized forms of the invading European languages, and from this merging we
obtained a Caribbean English and a Caribbean culture. Of all the varieties of Caribbean English,
the most appealing is the Jamaican creole , defined as a language that has evolved from pidgins
used by speakers of unintelligible people. So, we may differenciate two different types of
language: on the one hand, standard English, used in newspapers and news reporting, engages in
conversation, journalists; and on the other hand, Jamaican English, which is virtually
unintelligible to the outsider since this is the language of the streets (originally oral, recently
written).

Regarding its cultural diversity, we may say that the Caribbean is fragmented since each island
has its own strong loyalties and traditions. For example, Trinidad Island is heavily influenced by
French, Spanish, Creole and Indian traditions. The most English of the islands are Jamaica,
Antigua and Barbados. Nowadays, the Caribbean population is namely African and Afro-
European in origin. Despite size, ancestry, language, history and population differences, the
countries of the Caribbean share a common culture, the result of their parallel experiences as
plantation colonies for distant European economic and politic powers. Jamaica has alwasy had a
lively independent culture, namely reflected in this Third World nationalism and reggae music
as the result of a mixed multi-cultural heritage.

2. INTERCULTURAL INFLUENCES AND MANIFESTATIONS: THE NOVELS OF E.M.

FORSTER, D. LESSING AND N. GORDIMER.

With this background in mind, we are ready to address in Chapter 4 the intercultural influences
and manifestations of subject peoples of the British Empire who have reassesed one by one their
national identity, their history and literature, and their relationship with the land and language of
their former masters (www.wwnorton.com). The already mentioned respect for diversity, human
dignity and opposition to all forms of discrimination is reflected through the creation of
foundation works on gender equality issues; supporting the work of various Commonwealth
professional associations; promotion of cultural diversity by supporting various cultural and arts
awards, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Commonwealth Arts and Crafts
Awards, the Commonwealth Short Story Competition and the Commonwealth Photographic
Awards.

It is within this Commonwealth literary background that we shall approach the novels of (1)
Edward Morgan Forster, (2) Doris Lessing and (3) Nadine Gordimer in terms of life, main
works and style so as to frame their lives in an appropriate social and political context to make
him coincide with the late consequences of the British imperialism.

2.1. Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970).

Edward Morgan Forster was born in London on January 1 (1879) as the son of an architect, who
died before his only child was two years old. His childhood and much of his adult life was
dominated by his mother and his aunts, though it was the legacy of her paternal great-aunt
(Marianne Thornton) who gave later Forster the freedom to travel and to write. As a teenager he
attended Tonbridge School where he suffered from the cruelty of his classmates. Then he
attended King’s College, Cambridge (1897-1901), where he met members of the later formed
Bloomsbury group (hence his friendship with Virginia Woolf). There he felt free to follow his
own intellectual inclinations and gained a sense of individual uniqueness.
After graduating and travelling in Italy and Greece with his mother, he began to write essays
and short stories for the liberal Independent Review and by 1905 he had spent several months in
Germany as a tutor. Actually, these classical and Mediterranean countries would prepare the
ground for his first novel, Where Angels Fear To Tread (1905) and also would make him lecture
on Italian art and history for the Cambridge Local Lectures Board (1906). Next year he
published The Longest Journey (1907), which was followed by A Room with a View (1908),
based partly on the material from extended holidays in Italy with his mother.

Two years later, he wrote Howards End (1910), a story that centered on an English country
house and dealt with the clash between two families, one interested in art and literature, the
other only in business. The book not only brought together the themes of money, business and
culture, but also established Forster’s reputation. Then Forster embarked upon a new novel with
a homosexual theme, Maurice, which shows the picture of British attitudes. It was revised

several times during his life, and finally published posthumously in 1971. Forster used to hide
his personal life from public discussion, but in 1930 he had a relationship with a London
policeman. This important contact continued after the marriage of his London friend.

Between the years 1912 and 1913 Forster travelled in India and during WWI, Forster spent
some years in Alexandria, where he joined the Red Cross doing civilian war work. From 1914
to 1915 he worked for the National Gallery in London. After WWI, Forster returned to India in
1921, where he worked for a time as a private secretary to the Maharajah of Dewas. It was
there, in India , that he set the scene of his masterwork A Passage to India (1924), an account of
the country under British rule. It was Forster’s last novel since he decided to devote himself to
other activities. Thus, for the remaining forty-six years of his life Forster wrote two biographies
Goldsworthy Lowes Dickenson (1934) and Marianne Thornton (1956); the essay collections
Abinger Harvest (1936) and Two Cheers for Democracy (1951), a portrait of India with
commentary The Hill of Devi (1953); and a posthumous publication was the collection of short
stories The Life to Come (1972).

Regarding his contributions, Forster colaborated with reviews and essays to numerous journals,
most notably the Listener and he was an active member of PEN. In 1934 he became the first
president of the National Council for Civil Liberties, and after his mother’s death in 1945, he
was elected an honorary fellow of King’s and lived there for the remainder of his life. In 1946
his old college, King’s College, gave him an honorary fellowship, which enabled him to make
his home in Cambridge. Three years later (1949) Forster refused a knighthood. Yet, he was
made a Companion of Honour in 1953 and in 1969 he accepted an Order of Merit. Forster died
on June 7, 1970.

Broadly speaking, Forster was a noted English author and critic, member of Bloomsbury group
and friend of Virginia Woolf. After gaining fame as a novelist, he mainly wrote short stories and
non-fiction, and among his five important novels four appeared before World War I: Where
Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), and
Howards End (1910), since A Passage to India (1924) was published after WWI.

In his works his major concern was that individuals should connect ‘the prose with the passion’
within themselves. Since he was a novelist, essayist, social and literary critic, his work is
primarily linked to a realistic mode. Forster often criticized in his books one of his favourite
themes: Victorian middle class attitudes and British colonialism through strong woman
characters. Hence his dominant theme is the habitual conformity of people to unexamined social
standards and conventions, for instance, shown in Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and A
Room with a View (1908). However, Forster’s characters were not one-dimensional heroes and

villains, and except his devotion to such values as tolerance and sense of comedy, he was
uncommitted.

Other relevant themes for him include homosexuality, clearly shown in the English domestic
comedy Maurice (1971), which was published posthumously; the theme of continuity and the
future of England in The Longest Journey (1907) is reflected in a partly autobiographicl story of
the artist as a young man that predates Joyce’s classic with a weak idealistic hero (Rickie
Elliot); the need for men and women to achieve a satisfactory life, as it is reflected in Howards
End (1910). This ambitious novel, which brought Forster his major success, centers on an
English country house and deals with the clash between two families, one interested in art and
literature, the other only in business. The book brought together the themes of money, business
and culture.

On the other hand, within his favourite theme, Forster’s experiences in India, we include A
Passage to India (1924) and The Hill of Devil (1953). Both of them offer an account of his life
in India , but from different perspectives. Thus, The Hill of Devil (1953) shows a negative
perspective against the vaster scale of India and is told through seriousness and trthfulness,
represented mainly by the British officials (administrators, visitors) and their wives, and the
local Indian army. On the contrary, A Passage to India (1924), is usually regarded as a
masterpiece not only to its linguistic features, but also to the approach to its subject matters,
such as the values of truthfulness and kindness, and a reconciliation of humanity with nature.
There is a subtle symbolism which highlights the religious dimension.

Regarding his style, we may say it is a consistently light and witty style, with a mix of irony and
comedy. These features, together with his personal way to express his view of life, made him
achieve relevance for generations who do not conform to social conventions. He mainly wrote
about the importance of beauty, personal relations, the quest for harmony and non-conventional
attitudes. His characters are elusive but harmonic and the reader may notice a mysterious
attitude beneath his real characters’ life.
2.2. Doris Lessing (1919-).

Doris Lessing was born Doris May Tayler in Kernashah, Persia (now Iran) to British parents on
22 October, 1919. Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World
War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia and her mother had been a nurse. Lured by the
promise of getting rich through maize farming, her family moved to Southern Africa where she
spent her childhood on her father’s farm in what was then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

She lived in Rhodesia until 1949 and, when her second marriage ended, she moved to London
and settled there as a full-time writer.

There she wrote her first novel, The Grass is Singing (1950), which explores the complacency
and shallowness of white colonial society in Southern Africa and established Lessing as a
talented young novelist. Her African experience, trying to live an Edwardian life among
savages, provided her with the appropriate material.The story is about the relationship between
a white woman (Mary Turner), and her black houseboy (Moses). The main theme of this novel
is the great taboo of colour which represents the barrier between the black and white races, and
also the tragic results (death). Lessing addresses this theme as an important issue in the social
and political upheavals of the 20th century regarding culture and society (intense anger,
catastropic outcomes, and social injustice).

After her first novel, she was devoted for nearly ten years to the five books in the ‘Children of
Violence’ series (1952-69), which are strongly influenced by Lessing’s rejection of a domestic
family role and her involvement with communism. The five books display her concern about
politics and society in terms of reactions against her white, colonial, middle -class background in
both its social and political aspects. In a sense, the novels are autobiographical in many respects,
telling the story of Martha Quest (1952), a girl growing up in Africa who marries young despite
her desperate desire to avoid the life her mother has led. The second book in the series, A
Proper Marriage (1954), describes the unhappiness of the marriage and Martha’s eventual
rejection of it. The sequel, A Ripple from the Storm (1958), is very much a nove l of ideas,
exploring Marxism and Martha’s increasing political awareness as well as of love for people.
By the time that this book was written, however, Lessing had become disillusioned with
communism and had left the party.

Her next novel, The Golden Notebook (1962), made Lessing become firmly identified with the
feminist movement. The novel concerns Anna Wulf, a writer caught in a personal and artistic
crisis, who sees her life compartmentalised into various roles (woman, lover, writer, political
activist). Her diaries, written in different coloured notebooks, each correspond to a different part
of herself. Anna eventually suffers a mental breakdown and it is only through this disintegration
that she is able to discover a new ‘wholeness’ which she writes about in the final notebook.
The attack for being ‘unfeminine’ in her depiction of female anger and aggression and the
pressures of social conformity on the individual and mental breakdown revitalised her writing
about the political theme and published Landlocked (1965) and Four-Gated City (1969). These
two works gave the Children of Violence an optimistic ending. Her interest and radical visions
of the self was something that Lessing returned to in her next two novels, Briefing for a Decent
into Hell (1971) and The Summer Before the Dark (1973). Briefing for a Decent into Hell is a

story about an inner space fiction dealing with madness in which a man, who is found
wandering the streets of London, had no memory of a ‘normal’ life, while Kate, the central
character of The Summer Before the Dark , achieves a kind of enlightenment through what
doctors would describe as a breakdown.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Doris Lessing began to explore more fully the quasi-mystical
self-insight and turned almost exclusively to writing fantasy and science fiction developing
ideas which she had touched on towards the end of 'Children of Violence', thus inner-space
fiction with cosmic fantasies (Briefing for a Decent into Hell, 1971), dreamscapes and other
dimensions (Memoirs of a Survivor, 1974), and science fiction probings of higher planes of
existence (Canopus in Argos: Archives, 1979-1983). These reflect Lessing’s interest, since the
1960s, in Idries Shah, whose writings on Sufi mysticism stress the evolution of consciousness
and the belief that individual liberation can come about only if people understand the link
between their own fates and the fate of society.

In the 1980s, Lessing’s other novels include The Marriages between Zones, Three, Four and
Five (1980), a story about the nature of the kinds of relationships men and women must make
and the kinds of societies that must be developed. Also, we include two novels under the
pseudonym Jane Somers (The Diary of a Good Neighbour, 1983, in which she made a return to
realist fiction, and If the Old Could..., 1984). Also, The Good Terrorist (1985) and The Fifth
Child (1988). These recent novels have continued to confront taboos and challenge
preconceptions, generating many different and conflicting critical opinions.

For instance, in The Good Terrorist (1985), Lessing returned to the political arena, through the
story of a group of political activists who set up a squat in London (the book was awarded the
WH Smith Literary Award); and The Fifth Child (1988), which is also concerned with
alienation and the dangers inherent in a closed social group. The book depicts a family who
lives within the hedonism and excesses of the 1960s, childbearing and domestic bliss, and
whose fifth child, however, emerges as a malevolent, troll-like and angry figure who quickly
disrupts the family idyll.

Other several nonfiction works include the acclaimed first volume of her autobiography, Under
My Skin (1994), which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1995, and was followed by
a second volume, Walking in the Shade: Volume II of My Autobiography 1949-1962 (1997). She
was made a Companion of Honour by the British Government in 1999, and is President of
Booktrust, the educational charity that promotes books and reading. Lessing’s recent fiction
includes Ben, in the World (2000), a sequel to the The Fifth Child, and, more recently, The
Sweetest Dream (2002), which follows the fortunes of a family through the twentieth century,
set in London during the 1960s and contemporary Africa. In the same year she received the

David Cohen British Literature Prize (2001) and two years later she wrote her latest book, the
grandmothers, a collection of four short novels centred on an unconventional extended family
appeared in 2003.

At present, Doris Lessing lives in London. She is now widely regarded as one of the most
important post-war writers in English. Her novels, short stories and essays have focused on a
wide range of twentieth-century issues and concerns, from the politics of race that she
confronted in her early novels set in Africa, to the politics of gender which lead to her adoption
by the feminist movement, to the role of the family and the individual in society, explored in her
space fiction of the late 1970s and early 1980s

As mentioned above, Lessing’s fiction is deeply autobiographical, much of it emerging out of

her experiences in Africa. Drawing upon her childhood memories and her serious engagement
with politics and social concerns, Lessing has written about the clash of cultures, the gross
injustices of racial inequality, the struggle among opposing elements within an individuals own
personality, and the conflict between the individual conscience and the collective good. Her
stories and novellas set in Africa, published during the fiftie s and early sixties, decry the
dispossession of black Africans by white colonials, and expose the sterility of the white culture
in southern Africa. In 1956, in response to Lessing’s courageous outspokenness, she was
declared a prohibited alien in both Southern Rhodesia and South Africa.

Over the years, Lessing has attempted to accommodate what she admires in the novels of the
nineteenth century to the demands of twentieth-century ideas about consciousness and time.
After writing the ‘Children of Violence’ series (1951-1959), a formally conventional
bildungsroman (novel of education) about the growth in consciousness of her heroine, Martha
Quest, Lessing broke new ground with The Golden Notebook (1962), a daring narrative
experiment, in which the multiple selves of a contemporary woman are rendered in astonishing
depth and detail.

2.3. Nadine Gordimer (1923-).

Nadine Gordimer was born into a well-off family in Springs, Transvaal, a small gold-mining
town in South Africa outside Johannesburg (the setting for Gordimer’s first novel, The Lying
Days, 1953). Her father was a Jewish jeweler and her mother of British descent, the latter being
a dominant influence on her life since from her early childhood, Gordimer was often kept at
home by a mother who thought she had a heart disease. As a child, Gordimer witnessed how the
white minority increasingly weakened the rights of the black majority so, for these two reasons,

she began writing at the age of nine. Gordimer was educated in a convent school and spent a
year at Witwaterstrand University (Johannesburg) without taking a degree. Since then she has
been devoted to her writing in South Africa and has lived in Johannesburg since 1948.

Her first short story, ‘Come Again Tomorrow’, was published at the age of fifteen in the
children’s section of the liberal Johannesburg magazine Forum and during her twenties, her
stories appeared in many local magazines. For instance, her first collection of short stories, Face
to Face: Short Stories (1949), in which Gordimer has revealed the psychological consequences
of a racially divided society. In 1951 the New Yorker accepted a story, publishing her ever
since. Hence the short story collection The Soft Voice of the Serpent and other Stories (1952),
and her novel The Lying Days (1953) was based largely on the author’s own life and depicted a
white girl, Helen, and her growing disaffection toward the narrow-mindlessness of a small-town
life.

Other works in the 1950s and 1960s include her early short story collections Six Feet of the Six
(1956), and the novels Not for Publication (1965); A World of Strangers (1958), in which she
used the perspective of an outsider coming to South Africa (disillusion, fragmented nature of
life); Occasion for Loving (1963), which was concerned with South Africa’s cruel racial law
through an illicit love affair between a black man and a white woman; and The Late Bourgeois
World (1966). In these novels Gordimer studied the master-servant relations, spiritual and
sexual paranoias of colonialism, and the shallow liberalism of her privileged white compatriots.

In the 1970s we highlight her novels A Guest of Honour (1970), which examines the problem of
new independence in an unidentified African country; Livingstone’s Companions (1971), a story
in which the historical context of the racial divided society; The Conservationist (1974), with
which Gordimer won early international recognition for her short stories and novels. In it
Gordimer juxtaposed the world of a wealthy white industrialist with the rituals and mythology
of Zulus; also, her novel Burger’s Daughter (1979), which was written during the aftermath of
Soweto uprising. In the story a daughter analyzes her relationship to her father, a martyr of the
antiapartheid movement. She was also prolific in her essays, thus On the Mines (1973), making
reference to her birthplace and literary criticism The Black Interpreters (1973), being a study of
indigenous African writing.

In the 1980s she wrote July’s People (1981), a futuristic novel about a white family feeing from
war-torn Johannesburg into the country, where they seek refuge with their African servant in his
village; and also her short story collections, which include: an ‘Oral History’ from A Soldiers’s
Embrace (1980), in which Gordimer examines coolly the actions of her protagonist, linking the
tragic events in the long tradition of colonial policy. In the background of the story is the war of
independence in Zimbabwe (1966-1980), where she uses the mopane tree as a symbol of life

and death; Something Out There (1984), and Jump and Other Stories (1991). Later on, in her
novel The House Gun (1998) Gordimer explored the complexities of the violence ridden post-
apartheid society through a murder trial, where two white privileged liberals, Harald and
Claudia Lindgard, face the fact that their architect-son, Duncan, has killed his friend Carl
Jesperson.

By the turn of the century she wrote The Pickup (2001), whose basic setting reminds in some
points the famous film Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1962), in which starring Catherine
Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo, start a love affair, though they belong to different cultures. The
main themes are the background that separates them, sex crossing all the cultural barriers, the
striving for money and success, the good things of life that the West can offer, and the woman’s
maturation. Finally, her latest book, Loot and Other Stories (2003), is a collection of ten short
stories widely varied in theme and place.

In short, we have seen how Ms. Gordimer rose to world fame for her novels and short stories
that stunned the literary world and made her win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. In
addition to ther twelve novels, ten collections of short stories and essays on topics including
apartheid and writing, Gordimer’s credits include screenplays for television dramas based on
her own short stories (1981-82), the script for the BBC film “Frontiers” (1989), and television
documentaries, notably collaborating with her son Hugo Cassirer on the television film
Choosing Justice: Allan Boesak. Winner of eleven literary awards and fourteen honorary
degrees, her most recent novel is entitled “The House Gun” and a documentary film entitled
“Hanging on a Sunrise”.

She was a founding member of Congress of South African Writers, and even at the height of the
apartheid regime, she never considered going into exile. Actually, since 1948 Gordimer has
lived in Johannesburg. She has also taught in the USA in several universities during the 1960s
and ‘70s. Gordimer has written books of non-fiction on South African subjects. Hence most of
Nadine Gordimer’s works deal with the moral and psychological tensions of her racially divided
home country.

3. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING.

Literature, and therefore, literary language is one of the most salient aspect of educational
activity. In classrooms all kinds of literary language (poetry, drama, novel, prose, periodicals –
newspapers, pamphlets-), either spoken or written, is going on for most of the time. Yet,
handling literary productions in the past makes relevant the analysis of the Commonwealth

literature and, in particular, in English-speaking countries, originally colonies of the British

empire, as reflected in the three authors under study (namely Africa and India). Hence it makes
sense to examine the historical background of the Commonwealth so as to provide a particular
period of time with an appropriate context (imperialism, post-colonial literature).

Currently, action research groups attempt to bring about change in classroom learning and
teaching through a focus on literary production under two premises. First, because they believe
learning is an integral aspect of any form of activity and second, because education at all levels
must be conceived in terms of literature and history. The basis for these assumptions is to be
found in an attempt, through the use of historical events, to develop understanding of students’
shared but diverse social and physical environment. This means that literary productions are an
analytic tool and that teachers need to identify the potential contributions and potential
limitations of students before we can make good use of the historical events which frame the
literary period.

So, the Commonwealth may be easily approached to students by familiar issues, such as racism
in South Africa (apartheid), the Gibraltar question, India as the Jewel of the Crown (drawn from
contemporary novels, such as The Jungle Book (1894) or historical figures such as Indira
Ghandi), by establishing a paralelism with the Spanish one (age, literature forms, events). Since
literature may be approached in linguistic terms, regarding form and function (morphology,
lexis, structure, form) and also from a cross-curricular perspective (Sociology, History, English,
French, Spanish Language and Literature), Spanish students are expected to know about the
history of the Commonwealth and its influence in the world.

In addition, one of the objectives of teaching the English language is to provide good models of
almost any kind of literary productions for future studies. Following van Ek & Trim (2001), ‘the
learners can perform, within the limits of the resources available to them, those writing (and
oral) tasks which adult citizens in general may wish, or be called upon, to carry out in their
private capacity or as members of the general public’ when dealing with their future regarding
personal and professional life.

Moreover, nowadays new technologies may provide a new direction to language teaching as
they set more appropriate context for students to experience the target culture. Present-day
approaches deal with a communicative competence model in which first, there is an emphasis
on significance over form, and secondly, motivation and involvement are enhanced by means of
new technologies. Hence literary productions and the history of the period may be approched in
terms of films and drama representations in class, among others, and in this case, by means of
books (novels: historical, terror, descriptive), paper (essays), among others.

The success partly lies in the way literary works become real to the users. Some of this
motivational force is brought about by intervening in authentic communicative events.
Otherwise, we have to recreate as much as possible the whole cultural environment in the
classroom by means of documentaries, history books, or their family’s stories. This is to be
achieved within the framework of the European Council (1998) and, in particular, the Spanish
Educational System which establishes a common reference framework for the teaching of
foreign languages where students are intended to carry out several communication tasks with
specific communicative goals, for instance, how to locate a literary work within a particular
historical period.

Analytic interpretation of texts in all genres should become part of every literary student’s basic
competence (B.O.E., 2004). There are hidden influences at work beneath the textual surface:
these may be sociocultural, inter and intratextual. The literary student has to discover these, and
wherever necessary apply them in further examination. The main aims that our currently
educational system focuses on are mostly sociocultural, to facilitate the study of cultural themes,
as our students must be aware of their current social reality within the European framework.

4. CONCLUSION.

Since literature reflects the main concerns of a nation at all levels, it is extremely important for
students to be aware of the close relationship between History and Literature so as to understand
the main plot of a novel, short story, or any other form of literary work. In this unit, we have
particularly approached the issue of the Commonwealth and British Imperialism as a time of
great changes, colonial expansion and wars. For the better, or for the worse.

The aim of this unit was to provide a useful introduction to the Commonwealth from a general
overview regarding its cultural diversity and development of linguistic varieties as well as in
terms of intercultural influences and manifestations which, as we have seen, are namely
reflected in the novels of E.M. Forster, D. Lessing and N. Gordimer. In doing so, we have dealt
with the entity of the Commonwealth in terms of definition; brief history regarding origins,
membership, and organization, that is, its evolution as an international organization up to the
present day; and also from a historical perspective so as to get a general overview of the
development and administration of the British colonial empire from the seventeenth century to
the present day.

Secondly, we have approached in Chapter 3 the Commonwealth country members’ cultural

diversity and development of linguistic varieties individually, but before we have examined the
Commonwealth principles and values so as to provide a framework to the cultural and linguistic
variety in the countries which founded the Commonwealth, namely Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, South Africa, India, and the Caribbean Islands. Finally, with this background in mind,
we have approached in Chapter 4 the intercultural influences and manifestations present in the
novels of E.M. Forster, D. Lessing and N. Gordimer by examining their writings in terms of
their own experiences, works, themes and style.

So far, we have attempted to provide the reader in this presentation with a historical background
on the vast amount of literature productions of the Commonwealth, and its further contributions
up to twenty-first century. This information is relevant for language learners, even 2nd year
Bachillerato students, who do not automatically establish similiarities between British, Spanish
and worldwide literary works. So, learners need to have these associations brought to their
attention in cross-curricular settings. As we have seen, understanding how literature developed
and is reflected in our world today is important to students, who are expected to be aware of the
richness of English literature, not only in Great Britain but also in other English-speaking
countries.

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Alexander, M. 2000. A History of English Literature. Macmillan Press. London.

B.O.E. 2004. Consejería de Educación y Cultura. Decreto N.º 116/2004, de 23 de enero. Currículo de la
Educación Secundaria Obligatoria en la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia.

B.O.E. 2004. Consejería de Educación y Cultura. Decreto N.º 117/2004, de 23 de enero. Currículo de
Bachillerato en la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia.

Council of Europe (1998) Modern Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European
Framework of reference.

Magnusson, M., and Goring, R. (eds.). 1990. Cambridge Biographical Dictionary. New York: Cambridge
University Press.

Sanders, A. 1996. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford University Press.

Speck, W.A. 1998. Literature and Society in Eighteenth-Century England: Ideology Politics and Culture
1680-1820. Book Reviews.

Thoorens, Léon. 1969. Panorama de las literaturas Daimon: Inglaterra y América del Norte. Gran
Bretaña y Estados Unidos de América. Ediciones Daimon.

Other sources include:

Microsoft (R). 1997. Encyclopedia Encarta. Microsoft Corporation.
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (The). 2003. 6th ed. Columbia University Press.

"British Empire." Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 2004. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 28
May 2004 <http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article?eu=383356>.

The Commonwealth at a glance: a brief guide to the association, Commonwealth Secretariat, June 2003.

www.bbc.com
www.wwnorton.com