Snow on Sugarcane: The Evolution of West Indian Poetry in Britain
Author: Ian Dieffenthaller
Date Of Publication: Apr 2009
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-0355-7
Isbn: 1-4438-0355-3
As recently as the early 1970s, scholars were able to argue conclusively for the existence of West Indian poetry as distinct from the English canon. Because much of its development occurred in Britain, hybridising with British practice was inevitable and this book makes a case for a West Indian British poetry which at first parallels and later becomes distinct from either of its parent bodies, relying instead on a cross-cultural aesthetic that continues to evolve.

Early chapters examine the work of Claude McKay, Una Marson and Phyllis Allfrey in tandem with West Indian novels and calypsos of the 1950s and incipient critical practice fronted by Kamau Brathwaite. Subsequent chapters chart the influence of the Caribbean Artists Movement and poets such as John La Rose, Andrew Salkey and Faustin Charles. The politicising of the West Indian British community in the 1970s gave rise to the work of Linton Kwesi Johnson and ‘dub’ poetry. It also initiated the concept of ‘black Britain,’ which continues to obscure developments in West Indian British poetry into the twenty-first century. Later chapters examine these developments and chronicle the literary strategies of poets such as E. A. Markham, John Agard, James Berry, Fred D’Aguiar, Amryl Johnson and Grace Nichols, who along with poets from a non-West Indian heritage enrich the new hybrid voice and ensure its continued existence.

In History of the Voice, Kamau Brathwaite questioned the cultural basis of West Indian children in the 1950s who wrote of snow falling on cane fields. It is in West Indian British poetry that such collisions are made possible – and culturally viable.

Ian Dieffenthaller grew up in and around San Fernando, Trinidad, trained as an architect at Bristol and acquired his PhD from the University of Birmingham. He has written on West Indian and West Indian British poetry for journals such as Wasafiri, PNR and Mango Season. He edited and introduced Rivers of Time, the collected poems of Cy Grant (London: Naked Light, 2008) and his essay on Linton Kwesi Johnson appears in Bridges Across Chasms (Liege: L3, 2004). He is currently working on the first anthology of Trinidad and Tobago poetry since 1947.

“As defined and established in Snow on Sugarcane, “West Indian British poetry” has hardly been acknowledged by other commentators. Ian Dieffenthaller breaks new ground with his nuanced account of both the Caribbean roots and the contemporary British flowering of this “hybrid voice”. This original and important study, written with critical wit and real style, both complicates the conventional story and enriches our understanding of this distinctive body of work.”

- Dr. Stewart Brown, Reader in Caribbean Literature, Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham.  Hon. Research Fellow, Centre of Caribbean Studies, University of Warwick. Editor: The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse

"Impressive in its scope, this original study examines the development of West Indian poetry in Britain, spanning several decades from the 1920s to the present, and focuses on famous and lesser known voices. Dieffenthaller's wide-ranging analysis, both textual and contextual, traces the rise of a unique cross-cultural sensibility. Snow on Sugarcane is a source of precious information for any reader interested in the literature of the Caribbean diaspora."

Bénédicte Ledent

Université de Liège (Belgium)

Price Uk Gbp: 44.99
Price Us Usd: 67.99

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)