Abstract
This chapter looks initially at the history of writing by Black British women writers, at issues of identity and location, labelling and invisibility. Black British writers often write from more than one culture, some writing in the diaspora, between the country of their origin (or their parents’ origin) and the UK. They concentrate on a variety of issues including race, gender, identity, relationships, and women’s roles. The writers considered here include Jackie Kay, Maud Sulter, Barbara Burford, Grace Nichols, Merle Collins, Valerie Bloom, Amryl Johnson, Joan Riley, Meera Syal and Moniza Alvi.
Observers with beady eyes and without Anglo-Saxon attitudes
(Rushdie, 1982, p. 8)
I have crossed an ocean I have lost my tongue from the root of the old one a new one has sprung
(Nichols, 1984, Epilogue from ‘I is a Long Memoried Woman’, p. 64)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Alibhai, Yasmin (1991), New Statesman and Society, 15 February.
Amos, Valerie and Parmar, Pratibha (1984), Feminist Review, special issue: ‘Many Voices, One Chant’, no. 17 (July), pp. 3–19.
Asian Women’s Writers Collective (1988), No Right of Way (London: Women’s Press).
Asian Women’s Writers Collective (1994), Flaming Spirit (London: Virago).
Asian Women Writers Collective (1990), ‘At the End of a Greenhouse Summer’, in Maud Sulter and Ingrid Pollard (eds), Passion: Discourses on Black Women’s Creativity (London: Urban Fox Press).
Bloom, Valerie (1983), Touch Mi, Tell Mi (London: Bogle L’ouverture).
Burford, Barbara; Pearce, G.; Nichols, G. and Kay, J. (eds) (1984), A Dangerous Knowing: Four Black Women Poets (London: Sheba Press).
Burford, Barbara (1984), Everyday Matters, 2 (London: Women’s Press).
Burford, Barbara (1986), The Threshing Floor (London: Women’s Press).
Cobham, R. and Collins, M. (eds) (1987), Watchers and Seekers (London: The Women’s Press).
Collins, Merle (1985), ‘Crick Crack Monkey’, in Because the Dawn Breaks (London: Women’s Press).
Collins, Merle (1985), Because the Dawn Breaks (London: Women’s Press).
Collins, Merle (1987), Angel (London: Women’s Press).
Griffin, Gabrielle (1992), ‘Writing the Body’, in G. Wisker (ed.), Insights into Black Women’s Writing (Basingstoke: Macmillan).
Gupta, Tanika (1994), Flaming Spirit, in Asian Women’s Writing Collective, (London: Virago).
Guptra, Sunetra (1992), Memories of Rain (London: Orion).
Guptra, Sunetra (1993), The Glassblower’s Breath (London: Orion).
Hosain, Attia and Markanda, Kamala (1973), The Nowhere Man (London: Allen Lane).
Humm, Maggie (1991), Border Traffic (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
Innes, C. L. (1995), ‘Wintering: Making a Home in Britain’, in A. Robert Lee (ed.), Other Britain, Other British: Contemporary Multi-cultural Fiction (London: Pluto).
Jena, Seema (1993), ‘From Victims to Survivors: The Anti-hero as a Narrative Strategy in Asian Immigrant Writing with Special Reference to The Buddha of Suburbia’, in Wasafiri, 17 (Spring).
Johnson, Amryl (1985), Long Road to Nowhere (London: Virago).
Jones, T. (1993), Britain’s Ethnic Minorities (London: Policy Studies Institute).
Kay, Jackie (1984), ‘We are not all sisters under the same moon’, in A Dangerous Knowing (London: Sheba).
Kay, Jackie (1984), ‘So you think I’m a mule’, in A Dangerous Knowing (London: Sheba).
Kay, Jackie (1989), ‘The White Woman in your Head’, Open University television programme.
Kay, Jackie (1991), ‘The Telling Part’, in Adoption Papers (Newcastle: Bloodaxe Books).
Kay, Jackie (1991), ‘Mummy and Donor and Deirdre’, in Adoption Papers (Newcastle: Bloodaxe Books).
Kay, Jackie (1998), The Trumpet (London: Picador).
Kay, Jackie (1999), in conversation with Maya Jaggi, Wasafiri, no. 29 (Spring), p. 53.
Mason, D. (1995), Race and Ethnicity in Modern Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Mercer, K. (1990), ‘Welcome to the Jungle: Identity and Diversity in Postmodern Politics’, in J. Rutherford (ed.), Identity, Community, Culture, Difference (London: Lawrence and Wishart).
Mirza, Heidi Safia (ed.) (1997), Black British Feminism: A Reader (London: Routledge).
Morrison, Toni (1987), Beloved (London: Chatto and Windus).
Morrison, Toni (1992), Jazz (London: Chatto and Windus).
Morrison, Toni (1998), Paradise (London: Chatto and Windus).
Ngcobo, Lauretta (ed.) (1987), Let it be Told: Black Women Writers in Britain (London: Virago).
Nichols, Grace (1984), ‘Loveact’, and other poems, in The Fat Black Woman’s Poems (London: Virago).
Nichols, Grace (1985), Twentieth-Century Witch Chant’, in Purple and Green: Poems by Women Poets (London: Rivel in Grapheme).
Nichols, Grace (1986), Whole of a Morning Sky (London: Virago).
Nichols, Grace (1989), ‘Home Truths’, in E. A. Markham (ed.), Hinterland: Caribbean Poetry from the West Indies and Britain (Newcastle: Bloodaxe Books).
Nwapa, Flora (1966), Efuru (London: Heinemann).
Pearn, Julie (1987), in Ngcobo (ed.), Let it be Told (London: Virago).
Randhawa, Ravinder (1987), A Wicked Old Woman.
Raychaudhuri, Sibani (1994), ‘Sisters’, in Asian Women’s Writing Collective, Flaming Spirit (London: Virago).
Riley, Joan (1985), The Unbelonging (London: The Women’s Press).
Rushdie, Salman (1982), ‘The Empire Writes Back with a Vengeance’, Sunday Times, 2 July.
Sandoval, Cheva, (1991), ‘Deterritorializations: The Rewriting of Home & Exile in Western Feminist Discourse’, Cultural Critique, no. 6, p. 187.
Sidhanta Ash, Ranjana (1995), ‘Writers of the South Asian Diaspora in Britain: A Survey of Post-War Fiction in English’, Wasafiri, 21 (Spring).
Shabnam Grewal et al. (eds) (1988), Charting the Journey: Writings by Black and Third World Women (London: Sheba).
Skellington, R. and Morris, P. (1996), ‘Race’ in Britain Today, 2nd edn (London: Sage).
Spivak, G. (1987), In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (New York and London: Methuen).
Storkey, M. (1994), London’s Ethnic Minorities, One City, Many Communities: An Analysis of 1991 Census Results (London: London Research Centre).
Sulter, Maud (1985), As a Black Woman (London: Akira).
Sulter, Maud (1986), Through the Break: Women and Personal Struggle (London: Sheba).
Sulter, Maud (1989), Zabat: Poetics of a Family Tree (London: Sheba).
Sulter, Maud and Pollard, Ingrid (eds) (1990), Passion: Discourses on Black Women’s Creativity (London: Urban Fox Press).
Sulter, Maud (1991), Echo: Works by Women Artists, 1850–1940 (Liverpool: Tate Gallery).
Syal, Meera (1997), Anita and Me (London: Flamingo).
Walker, Alice (1989), The Temple of My Familiar (London: The Women’s Press).
Copyright information
© 2000 Gina Wisker
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wisker, G. (2000). Black British Women’s Writing. In: Post-Colonial and African American Women’s Writing. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-333-98524-3_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-333-98524-3_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-72746-1
Online ISBN: 978-0-333-98524-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)