A History of Black and Asian Writing in Britain

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

• Chronological table of historical and literary events; List of illustrations; Introduction; Interchapter: first encounters; 1. Eighteenth-century letters and narratives: Ignatius Sancho, Olaudah Equiano, and Dean Mahomed; 2. Speaking truth for freedom and justice: Mary Prince and Robert Wedderburn; Interchapter: the imperial century; 3. Querying race, gender and genre: nineteenth-century narratives of escape; 4. Travellers and reformers: Mary Seacole and B. M. Malabari; 5. Connecting cultures: Cornelia and Alice Sorabji; Interchapter: ending empire; 6. Duse Mohamed Ali, anti-imperial journals, and black and Asian publishing; 7. Subaltern voices and the construction of a global culture; 8. Epilogue; Notes to chapters; Notes on writers; Bibliography.

'… 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