‘Shaping Connections’: From West Indian to Black British

Abstract

Central to the debates surrounding the construction of black British expressive cultures are questions regarding nationality, canonicity and tradition. How ‘black’ modifies British (and vice versa) adds a layer of complexity: how to preserve the specificity of black history in Britain and yet also acknowledge its distinctive connections with black cultures within and outside the national polity. In his attempt to formulate a language of criticism that does justice to aesthetic and political contours of black British writing, John McLeod’s essay in this collection, ‘Fantasy Relationships’ emphasizes their transnational interconnections. McLeod writes that to ‘approach the work of writers such as [Linton Kwesi] Johnson, [Caryl] Phillips, [Jackie] Kay and [Sam] Selvon in terms of a national paradigm ultimately fails … to render the experience of black peoples in Britain’.¹ Imagination cannot be bound by the borders of nation, and black writing from across the Atlantic has enabled black writing to occur ‘in’ and ‘about’ Britain. Black writing in Britain also dares to expose, for all Britons, the criss-crossings, the comings and goings, the transnational influences which arguably inform the construction of virtually all texts and canons which bear the signature of ‘British’. Moreover, recent criticism has increasingly engaged with this emphasis upon a transnational, migratory and diasporic consciousness across cultures.²

I am very grateful to the archivists at the Institute of Race Relations library in London who were extremely helpful in helping locate issues of the West Indian Gazette. The research for this chapter was undertaken with the help of a grant from the Leverhulme Foundation and the British Academy.