The thematic tradition in black British literature and its poetic representation

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to offer a thematic study of Black British Literature. The analysis covers the way in which Black British writers have dealt with the issues of childhood, old age, history, return to the homeland, identity, language, and hybridity. Each of those questions is exemplified with a number of poems that show one or some of the perspectives from which they can be considered. The overall study thus constitutes a revision of an integral part of contemporary English Literature that works at destabilizing the idea that “pure” cultural identities exist and that homogeneous national literary traditions are possible.