Women’s Month is here and due to current events, it is more important than ever to acknowledge the contributions of feminist writers to the literary world. Including local and international authors, classics and modern publications, fiction and non-fiction – here are ten essential feminist texts.
1. A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf’s extended essay is a foundational text of feminist thought. It was first published almost 100 years ago, but it remains relevant for its exploration of the necessity of female independence for creative expression.
2. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid’s Tale is a modern classic that is just as relevant today as it was on its publication date in 1985. Set in a dystopian America, in which women are valued only for their capacity to breed, the novel echoes disturbing realities of the 21st century with eerie prescience.
3. A Question of Power – Bessie Head
This powerful novel addresses mental illness and isolation from the viewpoint of Elizabeth, a mixed race South African woman, who moves to Botswana during the apartheid era. Based in part on Bessie Head’s life, it provides an important perspective from an author who deserves wider contemporary recognition.
4. Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Known for both her novels and non-fiction, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of Nigeria’s leading feminist writers. Americanah follows Ifemelu, a young Nigerian woman, who travels to the United States for university and explores ideas of gender, race, identity, and love.
5. Miss Behave – Malebo Sephodi
Miss Behave draws its title from the much-quoted feminist slogan: “well-behaved women seldom make history”. This autobiographical account of Malebo Sephodi’s life as a black South African woman provides both a refreshing viewpoint of a woman who dares to ‘misbehave’, and a pointed commentary on patriarchal culture in South Africa.
6. Nervous Conditions – Tsitsi Dangarembga
Nervous Conditions is notable as the first internationally published novel written by a black Zimbabwean woman. The novel follows teenager Tambu and it details her efforts to navigate the stifling gender roles that she is expected to inhabit while still striving to receive a good education.
7. Bad Feminist – Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay is a prominent writer and academic whose collection of essays discusses all the ways she feels like a ‘bad feminist’. In a style both honest and funny, this book delves into pop culture and everyday life to investigate what it means to be a feminist in the modern world.
8. Love in Colour: Mythical Tales From Around the World, Retold – Bolu Babalola
Bolu Babulola’s collection of short stories reimagines various fables from around the world, with a focus on African mythologies. Including romantic retellings of myths from Ghana, Lesotho, and Egypt, to name a few, this book celebrates a woman’s love as her strength.
9. Parable of the Sower – Octavia E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler is an iconic voice in science fiction, with many of her novels dealing with feminist and Afrofuturist themes. In Parable of the Sower, society in the near future has crumbled, and the protagonist, Lauren, must secure a future for a small group of survivors.
10. The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon
For those who enjoy sinking into a good fantasy novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree features matriarchal societies, queer romance, and dragons, both friend and foe. This sweeping novel is a stand-out example of an imaginative feminist fantasy for a new era.
