Postcolonial Manchester: Diaspora space and the devolution of literary culture

Postcolonial Manchester offers a radical new perspective on Britain’s devolved literary cultures by focusing on Manchester’s vibrant, multicultural literary scene. Referencing Avtar Brah’s concept of ‘diaspora space’, the authors argue that Manchester is, and always has been, a quintessentially migrant city to which workers of all nationalities and cultures have been drawn since its origins in the cotton trade and expansion of the British Empire. This colonial legacy – and the inequalities upon which it turns – is a recurrent motif in the texts and poetry performances of the contemporary Mancunian writers featured, many of them members of the city’s long-established African, African-Caribbean, Asian, Chinese, Irish and Jewish diasporic communities. By turning the spotlight on Manchester’s rich, yet under-represented, literary tradition, this book also argues for the devolution of the canon of English Literature and recognition for contemporary black and Asian literary culture.

Lynne Pearce is Professor of Literary Theory at Lancaster University

Corinne Fowler is Lecturer in Postcolonial Literature at the University of Leicester

Robert Crawshaw is Senior Lecturer in European Languages and Cultures at Lancaster University