Contemporary Black British Women's Writing: Experiments in Literary Form

Abstract

Contemporary Black British Women's Writing:Experiments in Literary Form Elisabeth Bekers (bio) and Helen Cousins (bio) experimental writing, aesthetics, innovation, canon, Black British fiction, women's writing, women's and gender studies This special issue on Contemporary Black British Women's Writing showcases the range and variety of literary creativity of British women of African and African Caribbean descent since the 1990s through a mix of articles and interviews. If, as Tim Brennan suggested, Black British literature was still invisible in 1990, over the past thirty years, women writers especially have pushed this field into the limelight, prompting critics rightly to observe that "contemporary black writing of Britain [is] characterised more and more by the work of women writers" and that these women's literary endeavors are far "removed from the purview of 'Black British writing' as it has been predominantly understood."1 In this special issue, we understand that shift to be around the forms in which Black British women are writing. In a field that has been primarily appreciated for its exploration of lived Black experience, we want to pay attention to the innovations in writing that, from a literary perspective, are no less significant. In fact, we suggest that their experiments with language, style, and genre put Black British women at the vanguard of the British literary scene more broadly. This recognition raises critical questions about the extent to which precedence has been given to the politics over the aesthetics of their writing and the manner in which they have been siloed into a "minority" literature by way of their gender and race. Historically, the designation of "Black British" as a literary category was instrumental in giving Black writers in Britain more visibility and opportunities for publishing their work. John McLeod notes that, because canon building assists in transformative processes in society, the "construct[ion of] a genealogy of black British writing" helped to recognize the work of Black writers as included within the "narrative of national culture."2 The rise of Black British literature as a distinct category was part of a greater political drive on the part of Britain's Black communities to be recognized as belonging to Britain and being entitled to participate in public life and the shaping of national identity. Literary authors and intellectuals, most notably Paul Gilroy and Stuart Hall, strove to disprove the racist refrain resounding in the 1970s and 1980s that "there ain't no black in the Union Jack," and this growing awareness of Black British culture stimulated academic as well as public interest in the expanding body of Black British literature.3 [End Page 211] However, in part, this categorization also has prevented Black British women's writing from being recognized as part of the British literary mainstream, which explains some authors' rejection or pragmatic embrace of the label.4 As James English observes, the label Black British "was taken up in literary and other cultural spheres partly for reasons of commercial and curricular convenience, as a rough and ready way of situating a diverse and as yet uncataloged array of writers, artists, and works," but this institutionalization rapidly established Black British writing as something separate from the normative literary tradition typified by white, male, middle-class authors.5 More recently, Danuta Kean has explored how a distinct category for Black British writers affects the demands of the publishing industry. Her report, commissioned by Spread the Word (a writer development agency for London), identified pressures on what authors wrote about, narrow ideas of what was "authentic," and marketing strategies focused on author ethnicity.6 For instance, agents would advise authors to make their stories saleable by conforming to stereotypical views of Black (and Asian) communities (for example encouragement in "upping the sari count, dealing with gang culture or some other image that conforms to White preconceptions"7). These attitudes tend to favor sociological realism in Black British women's writing and encourage readers to approach the texts first and foremost as an authentic way to learn about an "other" experience.8 This paradoxical effect does not mean that we advocate rescinding the label "Black British." An "outsider" status can be valuable in freeing authors from the...