A reader\'s guide to West Indian and Black British literature

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A reader's guide to West Indian and Black British literature

Front cover has three photographs: two people wearing costumes, a man with dreadlocks standing next to a sculpture, and two praying women wearing saris.

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Title:: A reader's guide to West Indian and Black British literature

Identifier:: PR9210.D341988

Permalink:: https://n2t.net/ark:/81984/d3d855

Type:: Image

Notes:: Guyanese scholar David Dabydeen and Ghanaian academic Nana Wilson-Tagoe specifically prepared A Reader's Guide to West Indian and Black British Literature to support Britain's General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) curriculum. The text is comprised of two parts. Part One is concerned with West Indian literature, giving both an introduction of the genre-designation as well as brief explanations of popular themes. Noted themes include "Anti-imperialism and Nationalism," "The Treatment of Race," "The Theme of Childhood," "The Treatment of Women/Women Characters," and "Post-independence Critiques" among others. The authors also offer short annotated bibliographies of well-known works concerned with each theme. Part Two follows the same structure, but discusses Black British literature. An annotated bibliography includes works such as Shakespeare's Othello and Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The third section takes up themes similar to those considered under West Indian literature, and includes "Early Writers: Equiano's The Interesting Narrative," "The Immigrant Experience: Samuel Selvon's The Lonely Londoners," and "Violence." The final pages include a short bibliography of West Indian and Black British texts not previously mentioned and an index of authors. As compared to Part One, Part Two does a much better job of acknowledging the long tradition of work about and by African-descended peoples. The absence of any substantive mention of nineteenth century narratives by or regarding West Indians does a disservice to the field. Throughout the book, the authors focus on the best-known texts and, rather than advancing any new claims, use this book as a reference work bringing together brief notes on the most popular works to come out of the regions.