Other Britain, Other British

Contemporary Multicultural Fiction

A. Robert Lee

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Year: 1995
• Print ISBN:
  9780745306452
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783711086
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Social Sciences

Britain may have ceded empire and colonies, but its colonial past permeates every corner of the land - from street-names and restaurants to second and third generation 'immigrant' communities - embracing a diversity of peoples from the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In literary and cultural terms, another Britain - largely but not exclusively non-white - is being formulated. How has the changing make-up of population and self-expression found voice in literature and literary fiction?

In this wide ranging study of postcolonial and immigrant writing in Britain, ten contributors - including Booker shortlist nominee Abdulrazak Gurnah - examine the extent to which Britain's colonial heritage has shaped present-day formulations of British culture. Covering the work of key writers - including Timothy Mo, V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Caryl Phillips, Hanif Kureishi, Kazuo Ishiguro and David Dabydeen - this collection explores how such writers bring very different critical sensibilities to bear on literary conventions. Also examined are the literary contributions of writers from Jewish Britain, Irish-Britain and Australasian Britain.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Displacement and Transformation in The Enigma of Arrival and The Satanic Verses - Abdulrazak Gurnah
• 2. Wintering: Making a Home in Britain - C.L. Innes
• 3. The Disturbing Vision of George Lamming - Louis James
• 4. Setting Up Home in a City of Words: Sam Selvon’s London Novels - Susheila Nasta
• 5. Changing the Script: Sex, Lies and Videotapes in Hanif Kureishi, David Dabydeen and Mike Phillips - A. Robert Lee
• 6. New Nations, New Selves: The Novels of Timothy Mo and Kazuo Ishiguro - Laura Hall
• 7. Long Day’s Journey: The Novels of Abdulrazak Gurnah - A. Robert Lee
• 8. Negotiating the Self: Jewish Fiction in Britain Since 1945 - Michael Woolf
• 9. ‘Lancelot’s Position’: The Fiction of Irish-Britain - Eamonn Hughes
• 10. ‘In Search of the Lost Tribe’: Janet Frame’s England - Rod Edmond
• 11. England from the Antipodes: Images of England in Australian Fiction, 1960-88 - Gay Raines
• Notes on Contributors
• Index