230471 Multi-Ethnic Literature and Media in Britain (S) (SoSe 2017)

For a very long time, what was called "English Literature" comprised the works of white, Englisch, middle-class, middle-aged (or long since dead) authors. However, since the post WWII-period, Britain has been a multi-ethnic country, mostly because the countries of the Commonwealth were part of the nation. It comes as no surprise therefore that poets, novelists and playwrights, as well as authors in various other media genres (film, radio play, music) whose origins lie in the areas (formerly) dominated by the British across the Globe have contributed to and significantly diversified the cultual production of the British Isles . In this seminar, we will look at selected examples of what has been called 'Black and Asian British Literature', mostly, drama and poetry, including Dub poetry, but also at radio plays and films by authors of Caribbean, African and Indian origin; we will also look more systematically at the ways in which other media than the printed book or the theatre stage have offered channels of articulation to those writers in Britain.

Bibliography

(a list of texts and other media products will be available here soon)