Justice - related texts
Reading lists
Social Justice themes in Literature - Most of these books are either too common or not sophisticated enough for advanced English, but the thematic list and summaries will trigger ideas for other texts.
Race
Indigenous Writers
Black British writers
Black American Writers
Indigenous Writers
- Alison Whittacker (Aboriginal poet)
Black British writers
- Benjamin Zephaniah (YA Novels: Refugee Boy and Gangsta Rap)
- Akala (Natives: race & class in the ruins of empire is great if you like non fiction essays from a personal perspective; his raps will be useful if your're looking for a short and accessible text.)
Black American Writers
- Toni Morrison (Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner!)
- Maya Angelou - (Black Feminist) "Still I rise" (poem, I know why the caged bird sings (biographical novel)
- Languston Hughs - (simple, "I, too, sing America."
- Audre Lorde
Gender
Politics
Dead Man Walking Helen Prejean -
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky -
Look in particular at the Orice's impassioned commentary on capital punishment.
- Anna Akhmatova (major poet in Stalinist Russia) - Poems like "Requiem" may fit with your text.
- The Indian's Welcome to the Pilgrim Fathers by Lydia H. Sigourney (1791-1865)
- Freedom Writers Ellen Gruwell and Freedom Writers
- The Chrysalids John Wyndham
Sexuality
Lies we Tell ourselves - robin Talley
Moon at Nine Deoborah Ellis
Poetry
Most poems that directly address the theme of justice are from the C20th. You won't find many of the traditional C19th 'classics' on this theme because the poets who made it into the literary cannon of this period was more interested in nature, individualism and the transcendent power of the imagination and than worldly politics, but look a little earier nad a little later and there are plenty of writers who used their pen to fight for justice.
John Milton (1677) - Paradise Lost - tells the story of Christian Justice, with much sympathy to Lucifer/the devil.
Denise Levertov -
Specific Moments in history
Denice Frohman - "The Hour Dylann Roof Sat in the Church" - written about the 2015 massacre of Black worshippers in a Charlston church.
"The colour of his hair", by A E Houseman - written on Oscar Wilde's Trial
Poems of Protest, Resistance and Empowerment - Lists (with links) to some of the most influential protest poems of the C20th
John Milton (1677) - Paradise Lost - tells the story of Christian Justice, with much sympathy to Lucifer/the devil.
Denise Levertov -
Specific Moments in history
Denice Frohman - "The Hour Dylann Roof Sat in the Church" - written about the 2015 massacre of Black worshippers in a Charlston church.
"The colour of his hair", by A E Houseman - written on Oscar Wilde's Trial
Poems of Protest, Resistance and Empowerment - Lists (with links) to some of the most influential protest poems of the C20th