Caribbean migration to Britain brought many new things - new musics, new foods, new styles. It brought new ways of thinking too. This innovative book explores the intellectual ideas which the West Indians brought with them to Britain. It shows that for more than a century West Indians living in Britain developed a dazzling intellectual critique of the codes of imperial Britain. In this comprehensive discussion of the major Caribbean thinkers who came to live in 20th-century Britain, chapters discuss the influence of amongst others: C.L.R. James; Una Marson; George Lamming; Jean Rhys; Claude McKay and V.S. Naipaul. The contributors draw from many different disciplines to bring alive the thought and personalities of the figures they discuss, providing a dramatic picture of intellectual developments in Britain from which we can still learn much. An introduction argues that the recovery of this Caribbean past, on the home-territory of Britain itself, reveals much about the prospects of multiracial Britain.
Written in an accessible manner, undergraduates and general readers interested in relations between the Caribbean and Britain, imperial history, literature, cultural and black studies should find much of interest in this collection.
Edited by:
Bill Schwarz
Series edited by:
Andrew Thompson,
John MacKenzie
Other:
Rebecca Mortimer
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 390g
ISBN: 9780719064753
ISBN 10: 0719064759
Series: Studies in Imperialism
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 04 December 2003
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
,
A / AS level
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
General editor's introduction Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Introduction. Crossing the seas - Bill Schwarz 1. What is a West Indian? - Catherine Hall 2. 'To do something for the race'. Harold Moody and the League of Coloured Peoples - David Killingray 3. A race outcast from an outcast class. Claude McKay's experience and analysis of Britain - Winston James 4. Jean Rhys: West Indian intellectual - Helen Carr 5. Una Marson: feminism, anti-colonialism and a forgotten fight for freedom - Alison Donnell 6. George Padmore - Bill Schwarz 7. C. L. R. James: visions of history, visions of Britain - Stephen Howe 8. George Lamming - Mary Chamberlain 9. 'This is London calling the West Indies'. The BBC's Caribbean Voices - Glyne Griffith 10. The Caribbean Artists Movement - Louis James 11. V. S. Naipaul - Sue Thomas Afterword: the predicament of history - Bill Schwarz Index -- .
Bill Schwarz teaches at Goldsmiths College, University of London
Reviews for West Indian Intellectuals in Britain
This is a fine collection and its significance lies in several areas. West Indian intellectuals were important actors in the drama that was to change the face of Britain, both because they adopted and reformulated British ideas about culture, and because they brought with them important cultural texts, including novels, poems and essays. --Simon Gikandi, University of Michigan
