The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing

One of the first major reference works to cover four centuries of black and Asian British literary history - a compass for future scholarship.

Susheila Nasta (Edited by), Mark U. Stein (Edited by)

9781107195448, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 January 2020

700 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 4.3 cm, 1.17 kg

'This new Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing will be greatly useful to students and teachers in a variety of fields beyond postcolonial and decolonial studies: intellectual history, literary theory, performance studies, Black Studies, area studies, print culture studies, media studies, diaspora studies. The numerous contributions to this landmark volume … [invite] readers to re-consider the asymmetries at the heart of the colonial power relation, but also to consider the blurred lines between what could be seen as strictly European and what is clearly transnational, transcultural and diasporic.' Commonwealth Essays and Studies

The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing provides a comprehensive historical overview of the diverse literary traditions impacting on this field's evolution, from the eighteenth century to the present. Drawing on the expertise of over forty international experts, this book gathers innovative scholarship to look forward to new readings and perspectives, while also focusing on undervalued writers, texts, and research areas. Creating new pathways to engage with the naming of a field that has often been contested, readings of literary texts are interwoven throughout with key political, social, and material contexts. In making visible the diverse influences constituting past and contemporary British literary culture, this Cambridge History makes a unique contribution to British, Commonwealth, postcolonial, transnational, diasporic, and global literary studies, serving both as one of the first major reference works to cover four centuries of black and Asian British literary history and as a compass for future scholarship.

Introduction Susheila Nasta and Mark U. Stein
Part I. New Formations: The Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Century: Preface
1. Narratives of resistance in the literary archives of slavery Markman Ellis
2. Writer-travellers and fugitives: insider-outsiders Antoinette Burton
3. Exoticisations of the self: the first 'Buddha of Suburbia' Mona Narain
4. Black people of letters: authors, activists, abolitionists Vincent Carretta
5. Engaging the public: photo- and print-journalism Pallavi Rastogi
Part II. Uneven Histories: Charting Terrains in the Twentieth Century: Preface
Section 1. Global Locals: Making Tracks at the Heart of Empire: 6. Between the wars: Caribbean, Pan-African, and Asian networks Delia Jarrett-Macauley and Susheila Nasta
7. Mobile modernisms: black and Asian articulations Anna Snaith
8. Establishing material platforms in literary culture in the 1930s and 1940s Ruvani Ranasinha
9. Transnational cultural exchange: the BBC as contact zone James Procter
10. Political autobiography and life-writing: Gandhi, Nehru, Kenyatta, and Naidu Javed Majeed
11. Staging early black and Asian drama in Britain Colin Chambers
Section 2. Disappointed Citizens: The Pains and Pleasures of Exile: 12. Looking back, looking forward: revisiting the Windrush myth Alison Donnell
13. Double displacements, diasporic attachments: location and accommodation J. Dillon Brown
14. Wide-angled modernities and alternative metropolitan imaginaries Mpalive-Hangson Msiska
15. Forging collective identities: the Caribbean artists movement and the emergence of black Britain Chris Campbell
16. Breaking new ground: many tongues, many forms Ashok Bery
17. The lure of postwar London: networks of people, print, and organisations Gail Low
18. Looking beyond, shifting the gaze: writers in motion Bénédicte Ledent
Section 3. Here to Stay: Forging Dynamic Alliances: 19. Sonic solidarities: the dissenting voices of dub Henghameh Saroukhani
20. Vernacular voices: fashioning idiom and poetic form Sarah Lawson Welsh
21. Narratives of survival: social realism and civil rights Chris Weedon
22. Black and Asian British theatre taking the stage: from the 1950s to the millennium Meenakshi Ponnuswami
23. The writer and the critic: conversations between literature and theory Vijay Mishra
24. Forging connections: anthologies, collectives, and the politics of inclusion Nicola L. Abram
25. Reading the 'black' in the 'Union Jack': institutionalising black and Asian British writing Roger Bromley
Part III. Writing the Contemporary: Preface
Section 4. Looking Back, Looking Forward: 26. Diasporic translocations: many homes, multiple forms Peter Morey
27. Reinventing the nation: black and Asian British representations John McLeod
28. Reclaiming the past: Black and Asian British genealogies Tobias Döring
29. Expanding realism, thinking new worlds Tabish Khair
30. Writing lives, inventing selves: Black and Asian women's life-writing Ole Birk Laursen
31. Black and Asian women's poetry: writing across generations Denise deCaires Narain
Section 5. Framing New Visions: 32. Through a different lens: drama, film, new media, and television Florian Stadtler
33. Children's literature and the construction of contemporary multicultures Susanne Reichl
34. Redefining the boundaries: black and Asian queer desire Kate Houlden
35. Prizing otherness: black and Asian British writing in the global marketplace Sarah Brouillette and John R. Coleman
36. Frontline fictions: popular forms from crime to grime Felipe Espinoza Garrido and Julian Wacker
37. Reimagining Africa: contemporary figurations by African Britons Madhu Krishnan
38. Post-secular perspectives: writing and fundamentalisms Rehana Ahmed
39. Post-ethnicity and the politics of positionality Sara Upstone
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Society & culture: general [JF], Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: general [DSB]