Country Lovers

This study guide will help you analyze the short story “Country Lovers” by Nadine Gordimer. You can also find a summary of the text, as well as inspiration for interpreting it.

Presentation of the text

Title: “Country Lovers” (1980)
Author: Nadine Gordimer
Genre: Short story

Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) was a South African writer of novels and short stories, most of which deal with social issues related to apartheid in South Africa. Nadine Gordimer received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1991.

Excerpt

Below, you can read an excerpt from our study guide:

Title

The title - “Country Lovers” - reveals both parts of the setting and the plot in the short story. It indicates the story is set in the countryside and that it has a plot about lovers. Upon reading the story, we realise that the narrative is not about any love and lovers, but about a forbidden interracial love between a white man and a black woman in South Africa. Furthermore, the title does not reveal anything about the tragic denouement of the story, with the man killing the child he had with the woman and even being acquitted because of lack of evidence.