ENGL 840 - Writing "Black" Britain

Institution:

Trinity College

Subject:

Description:

When the Empire Windrush landed at Tilbury docks in 1948, it brought the first wave of post-war immigration into labor-scarce Britain. Massive labor recruitment from India, Pakistan, and the West Indies brought tens of thousands of "commonwealth subjects" who changed and challenged British culture and politics. The collective experience of becoming "black" British citizens, the continuous struggle to define what that meant and, in the process of redefining "Britishness" for the culture as a whole, has been at the very center of cultural production by those who are still disparagingly referred to as "immigrants." This course will focus on the ways in which black British culture forged for itself an identity and political agenda and has resisted the assault of the British "mainstream" and fundamentally called into question "authentic forms of Englishness." We will be attentive to the shifts in political and theoretical debates of the past several decades in order to map what Frederic Jameson has usefully described as the "social ground of a text." Authors will include: CLR James, Sam Selvon, George Lamming, VS Naipaul, Caryl Phillips, Joan Riley, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Meera Syal, Hanif Kureishi, and Beryl Gilroy. 1.00 units, Seminar

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.Trincoll.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 297-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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