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.
Brief description: Susheila Nasta is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature at Queen Mary, University of London. She is the founding Editor of Wasafiri, the magazine of international contemporary writing. A pioneer in the field of postcolonial writing, she received an MBE for her services to black and Asian literatures in 2011. She has published over thirteen books, directed major award-winning research projects, and judged numerous literary prizes.
Review Quotes: 'The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing is a welcome compilation ... The essays in the volume are generally well written and balanced.' Vaibhav Iype Parel, ariel: A Review of International English Literature