DECOLONIZING THE IMPERIAL CENTRE: IMAGES OF LONDON IN BLACK BRITISH POETRY
DECOLONIZING THE IMPERIAL CENTRE: IMAGES OF LONDON IN BLACK BRITISH POETRY

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the imaginative decolonization of London by black British colonial and postcolonial poets since the early twentieth century. After explaining the place and role of London as occupying a significant place in the relations between poetry and decolonization, the article engages with the work of selected black British poets who arrived from (post)colonial countries in London prior to and during the period of formal decolonization following the Second World War, and their descendants writing in the late century. The aim of the article is to explore, in the light of cultural theorist Stuart Hall’s theorizing and understanding of cultural identity, how these poets have imaginatively represented and re-constructed the British metropolis as a location of resistance and change, and articulated their sense of migrant, diasporic and transcultural identities.

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