Malachi McIntosh

Wanna

During and after the two World Wars, a cohort of Caribbean authors migrated to the UK and France. Dissecting writers like Lamming, Césaire, and Glissant, McIntosh reveals how these Caribbean writers were pushed to represent themselves as authentic spokesmen for their people, coming to represent the concerns of the emigrant intellectual community.

Emigration and Caribbean Literature

Samuel Selvon is a seminal figure in the Caribbean, Canadian and black British literary traditions, but he is under-analysed and examination of his oeuvre is restricted primarily to calypso aethetics, dialectic humour and social realism. Although he is a major author, the bulk of his writing remains unread and the contexts of his production, as well as his life as a writer, are largely misunderstood. Beyond Calypso breaks this trend by presenting wide-ranging analyses across the body of Selvon's work including the poetry and short stories that escaped sustained attention in previous critical works on Selvon. Uniting scholars from the three sites from which Selvon undertook his literary career, Beyond Calypso progresses past the themes that have dominated previous assessments of Selvon. The collection begins with a survey of Selvon's criticism by leading Selvon scholar, Kenneth Ramchand, and moves on to draw together new archival research, surveys of hitherto out of print texts, broad readings of Selvon's works and more focused analyses. Presenting a fresh and comprehensive engagement with the work of one of the most significant figures in Caribbean and World Literature, Beyond Calypso reinvigorates interest in Samuel Selvon and sets the agenda for future Selvon studies.

Re-Reading Samuel Selvon

Beyond Calypso

Kit de Waal

Joel Lane

Bobby Nayyar

C.D. Rose

Sharon Duggal

Jendella Benson

Balvinder Banga

Alan Beard

Sibyl Ruth

Few cities have undergone such a radical transformation over the last few decades as Birmingham. Culturally and architecturally, it has been in a state of perpetual flux and regeneration, with new communities moving in, then out, and iconic post-war landmarks making way for brighter-coloured, 21st century flourishes. Much like the city itself, the characters in the stories gathered here are often living through moments of profound change, closing in on a personal or societal turning point, that carries as much threat as it does promise. Set against key moments of history – from Malcolm X’s visit to Smethwick in 1965, to the Handsworth riots two decades later, from the demise of the city’s manufacturing in the 70s and 80s, to the on-going tensions between communities in recent years – these stories celebrate the cultural dynamism that makes this complex, often divided ‘second city’ far more than just the sum of its parts.

A City in Short Fiction

The Book of Birmingham

Malachi McIntosh

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