Mapping the black atlantis of Black Britisch women's Writing and Criticism.

Dutch title: Het zwarte Atlantis van zwart-Britse schrijfsters: een verkenning van literatuur en kritiek in zowel Britse als diaspora-context



English abstract: This research project on Black British Women's Writing and Criticism aims to offer a thorough examination of a growing field within contemporary British literature that has not yet been treated in its totality in the way that other categories of British women's writing have been. The study proposes to develop a framework for theorizing the field of contemporary writing produced by women of African descent in Britain that takes into consideration the field's British context as well as its positioning on the much broader continuum of literature by women of African descent. To this purpose, it engages with (black) feminism, black/African (feminist) literary criticism, (black) (British) cultural studies, and postcolonial theory. Since black feminist criticism has focused mainly on the admittedly more substantial tradition of African American women's writing, but also on black women's writing from the Caribbean and the continent of Africa, this study examines whether trans-Atlantic connections can be observed or rather a case can made for a specifically British mode of black feminist literary criticism.