
Reading to Resist
Contemporary Black British Women's Writing
Suzanne Scafe(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 17. July 2025
Book
Hardback
166 pages
978-1-032-54629-2 (ISBN)
Description
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: Contemporary Black British Women's Writing 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: Contemporary Black British Women's Writing covers a broad range of texts including the work of internationally acclaimed writers such as Nadifa Mohamed, Zadie Smith, Diana Evans and Buchi Emecheta, as well as work by much less well-known writers such as Jacqueline Walker, Yvvette Edwards, and Jacqueline Roy.
Reading to Resist: Contemporary Black British Women's Writing 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: Contemporary Black British Women's Writing covers a broad range of texts including the work of internationally acclaimed writers such as Nadifa Mohamed, Zadie Smith, Diana Evans and Buchi Emecheta, as well as work by much less well-known writers such as Jacqueline Walker, Yvvette Edwards, and Jacqueline Roy.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
General, Postgraduate, Professional, Undergraduate Advanced, and Undergraduate Core
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
415 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-54629-2 (9781032546292)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2025
Routledge
€60.99
Available for download

E-Book
07/2025
Routledge
€60.99
Available for download
Person
Suzanne Scafe is Visiting Professor at Vrije University, Brussels. She has taught at several Universities in Europe and in London, UK and written several journal articles and book chapters on the work of a wide range of African-diasporic writers. She is the author of Teaching Black Literature and co-author of The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain.
Content
Introduction 1. Resisting Voicelessness: Contemporary Black British Women's Autobiography 2. Wrongdoing and Repair in the Work of Yvvette Edwards, Zadie Smith and Nadifa Mohamed 3. "Saying Madness": Jacqueline Roy's The Fat Lady Sings and the Fiction of Diana Evans 4. Parting the Veil, Re-writing and Re-purposing the Past: Laura Fish's Strange Music and Sara Collins's The Confession of Frannie Langton 5. Mobility, Achievement, and Failure: Buchi Emecheta's Head above Water, Zadie Smith's NW, Swing Time, and Natasha Brown's Assembly