Dwelling places

Explores some of the key venues of black British literary and cultural production across the postwar period: bedsits and basements; streets and cafes; train stations and tourist landscapes; the suburbs and the city; the north and south. Pursues a 'devolving' landscape in order to consider what an analysis of 'dwelling' might contribute to the travelling theories of diaspora discourse and asks what happens when we 'situate' literatures of movement and migration. Offers fresh readings of work by some of the key literary figures of the postwar years, for example, Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi, Meera Syal, Linton Kwesi Johnson. Contextualises writings alongside photography, painting, and film to consider their relationship to broader shifts in the politics of black representation over the past fifty years. Offers sustained anaysis of many of the texts reproduced in Procter's anthology Writing black Britain 1948-98 ( MUP, 2000) making an ideal companion to the earlier book.

Explores the venues of black British literary and cultural production across the postwar period. Extending from central London to the outskirts of Glasgow, the book pursues a "devolving" landscape, to consider what an analysis of "dwelling" might contribute to the theories of diaspora discourse.

List of illustrations1. General IntroductionI) Devolving black Britainii) 'Black': A brief British historyiii) Dwelling and diaspora2. Dwelling placesI) Introduction: The 'open door' and the domestic thresholdii) Descending the stairwelliii) Lyons at the circusiv) A 'little land' in London: The gate, the arch and the waterv) Conclusion:'A place to retire to.....'3. The streetI) Introductionii) From basement to pavementiii) Off-street locations: The Mangrove Restaurantiv) Rioting and writing: The street and representationv) Touring the city: The black British flaneurvi) 'Doun de road' : Bluefootednessvii) Brick Laneviii) Conclusion: Yellowbricklane4. SuburbiaI) Introduction: The suburban borderii) Ordinariness, discrepant cosmopolitanism and the Singhsiii) The Black Country, Birmingham and 'Anita and Me'iv) Refurbishing suburbiav) Conclusion: 'here and there...'5. The NorthI) Introduction: 'Another country...'ii) Black Britain beyond the centreiii) Bradford, the Rushdie affair and the re-imagination of landscapeiv) Bradford and the tourist landscapev) Travelling north: Writing an English journeyvi) Conclusion: 'Here'6. Conclusion: Train stations and travel bags