Family album (a collection of poetry), and 'A drift of many-hued poppies in the pale wheatfield of British publishing' : black British women poets 1978-2008

Abstract

The thesis comprises a collection of poems, a dissertation and a series of linking pieces. Family Album is a portfolio of poems concerning the themes of genealogy, history and family. It also explores the use of devices such as voice, the visual, the body and place as an exploration of identity. Family Album includes family elegies, narrative poems and commissioned work. The dissertation represents the first study of length about black women's poetry in Britain. Dealing with a historical tradition dating back to the eighteenth century, this thesis focuses on a recent selection of black women poets since the late 1970s. These women are part of a recognisable aesthetic which is still being built upon by contemporary black women writers. There are three parts to the thesis. The first part contains the original pieces of creative work which form a collection of poetry. This collection is accompanied by a section detailing my personal writing process. The second part comprises the critical analysis, research, commentary and the investigative process into black British women's writing. Questions of focus, order and arrangement have proved an exercise in creativity itself. The realisation that these two parts were not enough in terms of exploration of voice and writing provided the impetus for the third part of this thesis, 'she tries her tongue'. The function of this section is two fold: first to generate a relationship between the investigations into black women's poetry, Black Feminism and my own writing experience; second, as a way of challenging the objective, artificial and given method of writing a thesis. This is supported through a section where I locate myself within the black British women poets tradition. These linking pieces are an exploration into the personal-scholarly voice.