The most recent phase in Gordimer's novel sequence is characterized by a metafictional quality: this is not an entirely new development since there are deliberations about the function of technique and form in her previous novels. In A Sport of Nature (1987) and My Son's Story (1990), however, this tendency is both more pronounced and more overtly self-reflexive, focusing – often ironically – on her previous treatment of issues now taken up again. This principle of self-reflexive intertextuality in both novels makes their full signification dependent upon a knowledge of Gordimer's earlier work.

A SPORT OF NATURE

In some ways A Sport of Nature is Gordimer's most ambitious novel to date: it offers, as its organizing principle, an exaggerated re-evaluation of the issues and forms of her previous novels. This lends the book a ludic, metafictional quality which sets it apart from her earlier works. This novel is written at one remove: it is a book about her previous books, and this is what anchors a work that investigates the variety of interpretation to which personal and historical action can be subjected. The result is a novel which, viewed as a conventional work of realism, appears to be radically uncertain in its narrative stance, in its view of purposive political action, and in its conclusions about historical change.