Key Facts
full title ·
Nervous Conditions
author · Tsitsi Dengarembga
type of work · Novel
genre · Feminist bildungsroman
language · English
time and place written · Early 1980s, Zimbabwe
date of first publication · 1988
publisher · The Women's Press, London
narrator · Tambu
point of view · The narrator, Tambu, speaks in the first person, subjectively
interpreting and filtering the events and developments that occur around her
through her own thoughts, opinions, and biases.
tone · The tone, implied by the manner in which Tambu chooses to tell her
story and describe the lives of the people who make up her world, is biased. The
narrator is not wholly unreliable, as she objectively relays events and simple
observations, but her perspectives and interpretations are frequently
flawed.
tense · Past
setting (time) · 1960s and 1970s
setting (place) · Rhodesia
protagonist · Tambu
major conflict · Tambu struggles against the poverty and lack of opportunity that mark
her world at the homestead. Once at the mission school, she is impeded by the
societal bias against women and the sacrifices she must make in order to please
her uncle and fulfill his expectations of her.
rising action · After Nhamo dies, Tambu is offered his place at the mission school.
Babamukuru exerts more and more influence on the family's actions and decisions,
eventually declaring that Tambu's parents must be formally married in a
Christian ceremony.
climax · Tambu resists her uncle in refusing to attend her parents' wedding.
Maiguru leaves her husband after realizing she is not taken seriously as a
viable economic force in the family.
falling action · Tambu is punished and realizes she must take control of her own destiny
and make her own way, winning a scholarship to the convent school.
themes · The pervasiveness of gender inequality; the influence of colonialism;
tradition vs. progress
motifs · Geography; emancipation; dual perspectives
symbols · Tambu's garden plot; the mission; the ox
foreshadowing · Nyasha and Chido returning from England, having lost most or all of
their native tongue, Shona, foreshadows the same linguistic dislocation that
occurs to Nhoma and then to Tambu.
· Nhamo's growing dislike of returning home for vacations foreshadows the
growing gulf that develops for Tambu between life at the mission school and life
at the homestead.
