Reading to Resist: Contemporary Black British Women’s Writing

This is the first book to focus on writing by black British women writers, using an approach that highlights the potential of this fiction to intervene into discourses that shape the worlds in which it is situated. Reading to Resist: Fiction by Contemporary Black British Women undertakes a close, innovative reading of the novels selected, one that focuses on the texts’ aesthetics as well as their thematic engagement with the worlds of their readers and the worlds the texts themselves construct. Each chapter examines themes such as freedom and agency, moral understanding, and history, while also exploring issues of importance to the contemporary period such as well-being, success, and achievement. Reading to Resist covers a broad range of fiction including the work of internationally acclaimed writers such as Nadifa Mohamed, Zadie Smith, Diana Evans and Buchi Emecheta, as well as fiction by much less well-known writers such as Jacqueline Walker, Yvvette Edwards, and Jacqueline Roy, whose work is yet to garner critical attention.