The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing

Description

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. Reviews 'This excellent collection of essays engages fully and seriously with the wealth, complexity, and variety of British writing created by authors of African, Asian and Caribbean descent. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to acknowledge and understand the diversity of British literature and culture and its development over the past 250 years.' Lyn Innes - Emeritus Professor of Postcolonial Literatures, University of Kent 'This groundbreaking book of essays is a must-have for all editors, critics and literary editors who need to know this literary history, and all university and other libraries, and writers and readers.' Bernardine Evaristo - Brunel University, London