A History of Black and Asian Writing in Britain

The first extended study of black and Asian writing in Britain, now updated and available in paperback.

Now updated and available in paperback, this is the first extended study of black and Asian writing in Britain over the last 250 years. Beginning with authors who arrived as immigrants or slaves in the mid-eighteenth century, Innes includes a detailed discussion of works that were often enormously popular in their own time but are almost unknown to contemporary readers. Innes's fascinating study reveals a history of vigorous and fertile interaction between black, Asian and white intellectuals and communities, and an enormously rich and varied literary culture which was already in existence before the post-war efflorescence of black and Asian writing. Utilising a wealth of archival material, Innes examines their work as part of an acceptance of and challenge to British cultural and ideological discourses. This volume offers a rich historical background for understanding contemporary British multicultural society and culture and will be of interest to literary and cultural historians.

Chronological table of historical and literary events; List of illustrations; Introduction; Interchapter: first encounters; 1. Eighteenth-century letters and narratives: Ignatius Sancho, Olaudah Equiano, and Dean Mahomed; 2. Speaking truth for freedom and justice: Mary Prince and Robert Wedderburn; Interchapter: the imperial century; 3. Querying race, gender and genre: nineteenth-century narratives of escape; 4. Travellers and reformers: Mary Seacole and B. M. Malabari; 5. Connecting cultures: Cornelia and Alice Sorabji; Interchapter: ending empire; 6. Duse Mohamed Ali, anti-imperial journals, and black and Asian publishing; 7. Subaltern voices and the construction of a global culture; 8. Epilogue; Notes to chapters; Notes on writers; Bibliography.

Now updated and available in paperback, this is the first extended study of black and Asian writing in Britain over the last 250 years. This volume offers a rich historical background for understanding contemporary British multicultural society and culture and will be of interest to literary and cultural historians.

C. L. Innes is Professor of English at the University of Kent.