The Cambridge Companion to British Black and Asian Literature (1945–2010)
The Cambridge Companion to British Black and Asian Literature (1945–2010)
This Companion offers a comprehensive account of the influence of contemporary British Black and Asian writing in British culture. While there are a number of anthologies covering Black and Asian literature, there is no volume that comparatively addresses fiction, poetry, plays and performance, and provides critical accounts of the qualities and impact within one book. It charts the distinctive Black and Asian voices within the body of British writing and examines the creative and cultural impact that African, Caribbean and South Asian writers have had on British literature. It analyzes literary works from a broad range of genres, while also covering performance writing and non-fiction. It offers pertinent historical context throughout, and new critical perspectives on such key themes as multiculturalism and evolving cultural identities in contemporary British literature. This Companion explores race, politics, gender, sexuality, identity, amongst other key literary themes in Black and Asian British literature. It will serve as a key resource for scholars, graduates, teachers and students alike.
- An introduction to the range and history of the field in positioning black and Asian writing centrally in literary history rather than in the sidelines or in relation to white canonical traditions
- A valuable historical and political overview of postwar British history from the postcolonial diasporic angle in sociology or media and communications courses
- Chapters include autobiographies, adoption aesthetics, black historical fiction and regionalism in poetry by black and Asian poets, as these offer groundbreaking perspectives in newly emerging discourses
Reviews & endorsements
'This volume meets the high standards we expect from the Cambridge Companion series. Each contributor is an academic with expertise in the area on which they write. Each chapter is engagingly and accessibly written, providing a necessarily selective overview of the subject.' Linda Kemp, Languages and Literature
'This volume will be helpful to undergraduates by providing original and challenging scholarship, and an excellent chronology and guide to further reading. It will also be useful to researchers looking for new frameworks to approach contemporary English literature.' Wasafiri
Product details
October 2016Paperback
9781316504802
320 pages
228 × 153 × 19 mm
0.49kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction Deirdre Osborne
- Part I. Traces and Routes:
- 1. (1940s–70s) Susheila Nasta
- 2. British Black and Asian writing since 1980 Chris Weedon
- Part II. Translocations and Transformations:
- 3. Liberationist political poetics Birgit Neumann
- 4. Women's fiction and literary (self) determination Pallavi Rastogi
- 5. Brutalised lives and brutalist realism Modhumita Roy
- 6. Stages of representation D. Keith Peacock
- Part III. Restorations and Renovations:
- 7. Recalibrating the past James Procter
- 8. Black women subjects in auto/biographical discourse Suzanne Scafe
- 9. British Black and Asian LGBTQ writing Kanika Batra
- 10. The poetics and politics of spoken word poetry Corinne Fowler
- 11. Post-colonial plurality in fiction Malachi McIntosh
- Part IV. National, International, Trans-global:
- 12. 'Adoption aesthetics' John McLeod
- 13. Genre crossings: rewriting 'the lyric' in Black British poetry Romana Huk
- 14. 'Other' voices and the British literary canon Bénédicte Ledent
- 15. Critical outlooks Paul Warmington.
