The works listed will allow your students to further explore the theme of Personal Freedom in an Oppressive Culture and other themes related to Nervous Conditions:


Fiction
Alkali, Zaynab. The Stillborn. Massachusetts: Addison, 1995 (originally published 1984). This novel focuses on an adolescent girl and her dream of independence. It illustrates how women's hopes often die in a patriarchal society. The Stillborn won the Nigerian Authors' Prose Prize for 1985. (average)

Kincaid, Jamaica. Annie John. New York: Farrar, 1985. This novel tells of a young girl growing up on Antigua, a Caribbean island, and presents her thoughts and feelings about her friends and family as she grows into adolescence and womanhood. (easy)

Lessing, Doris. The Grass Is Singing. New York: Popular Library, 1976 (originally published 1950). An early work by Lessing, it unfolds the relationship between a white South African woman and her black "houseboy." The book is a commentary on race relations in colonial Africa. (challenge)


Nonfiction
Lessing, Doris. African Laughter: Four Visits to Zimbabwe. New York: Harper, 1992. In this book, Lessing recounts her observations and experiences during four visits to Zimbabwe between 1982 and 1992. (challenge)

North, James. Freedom Rising. New York: Macmillan, 1985. An eyewitness account of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and of Rhodesia's fight to become Zimbabwe. (average)

Palmer, Robin, and Isobel Birch. Zimbabwe, A Land Divided. Oxford: Oxfam, 1992. A lively, brief, and well-illustrated depiction of the culture and society in Zimbabwe. (average)