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.

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

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

Reviews
'... a pioneering history of black and Asian writing in Britain ... what makes this book a significant contribution to the continuing debate on the identity of Britain is its meticulous reconstruction of black and Asian writing in the country over a period of almost five hundred years ... There is no doubt that as a literary history this book fills a gaping hole in our understanding of black and Asian writing in Britain.' Simon Gikandi
'Innes offers detailed, critically informed readings of several black and Asian writers in Britain ... Both in terms of the historical terrain it covers and the writings it references and/or analyzes, Innes's study is likely to prove an invaluable resource and reference tool for people writing about and/or teaching anglophone (including mainstream white British) cultural and literary production in the colonial metropole.' Anuradha Dingwaney Needham, Research in African Literatures
'It is hard to fault C. L. Innes for the wealth of primary and secondary research and scholarship on which she expertly draws or for her analytic observations on the complexity of the experience and attitudes of Black and Asian British writers.' Steven Barfield
'With the panorama of writing it unfolds and its excellent scholarship, this study is essential reading. It belongs in every university library.' Zeitschrift fur Anglistik unk Amerikanistik



Book Information
ISBN 9780521719681
Author C. L. Innes
Format Paperback
Page Count 340
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 550g
Dimensions(mm) 228mm * 152mm * 21mm