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Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.206486. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution MONGREL NATION Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.206486. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.206486. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Ashley Dawson MONGREL NATION Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS Ann Arbor Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.206486. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2007 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2010 2009 2008 2007 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dawson, Ashley, 1965– Mongrel nation : diasporic culture and the making of postcolonial Britain / Ashley Dawson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-472-09991-7 (cloth : acid-free paper) ISBN-10: 0-472-09991-4 (cloth : acid-free paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-472-06991-0 (pbk. : acid-free paper) ISBN-10: 0-472-06991-8 (pbk. : acid-free paper) 1. English literature—Minority authors—History and criticism. 2. English literature—20th century—History and criticism. 3. Commonwealth literature (English)—History and criticism. 4. Postcolonialism in literature. 5. Immigrants in literature. 6. Minorities in literature. 7. Literature and society—Great Britain—History—20th century. 8. Postcolonialism—Great Britain. 9. Pluralism (Social sciences)—Great Britain. 10. Ethnic groups— Great Britain—History—20th century. I. Title. PR120.M55D39 2007 820.9'3552—dc22 2006036421 ISBN13 978-0-472-02505-3 (electronic) Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.206486. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution —Daniel Defoe, The True-Born Englishman Thus from a mixture of all kinds began, That Het’rogeneous Thing, An Englishman: In eager Rapes, and furious Lust begot, Betwixt a Painted Britton and a Scot: Whose gend’ring Offspring quickly learned to bow, And yoke their Heifers to the Roman Plough: From whence a Mongrel Half-Bred Race there came, With neither Name nor Nation, Speech or Fame. In whose hot Veins new Mixtures quickly ran, Infus’d betwixt a Saxon and a Dane. While their Rank Daughters, to their Parents just, Receiv’d all Nations with Promiscuous Lust. This Nauseous Brood directly did contain The well-extracted blood of Englishmen. Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.206486. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.206486. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Acknowledgments This project has been very long in the gestation, and, conse- quently, bears with it an immense number of debts. If I have neglected anyone in this long list of thanks, I beg your forgiveness. First of all, I would like to thank Rob Nixon, who encouraged me to think of myself as a public intellectual by example and through his con- sistent emphasis on the craft of writing. For this shaping impact and for the continuing help given since I ‹nished my studies, I am and will always remain deeply grateful. In addition, I must offer thanks to Jean Franco and Anne McClin- tock who, along with Edward Said, offered great inspiration to me dur- ing my graduate work. I will always be indebted to them for their pow- erful example as engaged intellectuals and teachers. Members of Columbia University’s Postcolonial Collective made the dif‹cult life of a graduate student bearable. In particular, I want to acknowledge the impact of the many late-night conversations I had with Nikhil Pal Singh during these formative years. While researching this manuscript I bene‹ted from discussions with many members of Britain’s black and Asian communities. I very much appreciate the willingness of so many to discuss their work and lives with me during the research phase of this project. In particular, I would like to thank Paul Gilroy, Gita Saghal, A. Sivanandan, and Nira Yuval-Davis for speaking to me and, more broadly, for the inspiration they provided me as activists, thinkers, and writers. I owe a great deal to my colleagues in the Department of English at the University of Iowa, where I was lucky enough to land my ‹rst tenure-track job. They provided a model of collegial warmth and con- viviality during the stressful early years of my career. I was particularly fortunate to be associated with wonderful mentors such as Dee Morris, Brooks Landon, Philip Lutgendorf, Jael Silliman, and Paul Greenough Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.206486. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS during these years. I am also indebted to Iowa for various grants— including two Old Gold Summer Fellowships, the Miller Trust Fund Travel Grant, and a Dean’s Summer Travel Grant—that afforded me travel funding as well as time to research and work on this manuscript. CUNY, my current home institution, has also generously aided me with relief from teaching through the PSC-CUNY Grant. My thanks to Janet Dudley Ng for her unstinting support as a friend and mentor dur- ing my early years at CUNY. More broadly, the militant struggle of col- leagues within my home department as well as within my union in gen- eral for public higher education has been a tremendous inspiration while I was working on this manuscript. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers at the Uni- versity of Michigan Press for their insightful suggestions on an early draft of this manuscript. I am of course to blame for any errors and/or dodgy historical and textual interpretations. Thanks to extended family members John Dawson, Bernie Small- man, and Jim and Jane Pettit for putting me up in their homes in Lon- don during various stages of my research. And to Ann and Nigel Daw- son, whose immense and unstinting love during the long years that I worked on this project can never be adequately repaid. Finally, my deepest thanks go to Patrizia Palumbo and So‹a Palumbo-Dawson for their support and forbearance during this proj- ect. This project has grown up with you, So‹a, and yet you and your mother have seldom chided me for the time this twin of yours has taken away from you both. Thank you both for sticking by me to the end. Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.206486. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Contents Colonization in Reverse An Introduction 1 1 “In the Big City the Sex Life Gone Wild” Migration, Gender, and Identity in Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners 27 2 Black Power in a Transnational Frame Radical Populism and the Caribbean Artists Movement 49 3 Behind the Mask Carnival Politics and British Identity in Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Dub Poetry 73 4 Beyond Imperial Feminism Buchi Emecheta’s London Novels and Black British Women’s Emancipation 95 5 Heritage Politics of the Soul Immigration and Identity in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses 121 6 Genetics, Biotechnology, and the Future of “Race” in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth 149 Conclusion: “Step Back from the Blow Back” Asian Hip-Hop and Post-9/11 Britain 175 Notes 189 Index 221 Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.206486. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Dawson, Ashley. Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2007, https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.206486. Downloaded on behalf of Unknown Institution Colonization in Reverse An Introduction The iconic image of post-1945 migration to Britain unwinds on a grainy old Pathé newsreel. Standing on the wooden deck of a battered troop carrier named the Empire Windrush as it docks at Tilbury on 21 June 1948, the calypso singer Lord Kitchener offers up a lyrical perfor- mance of a song composed specially for the occasion. Lord Kitchener’s “London Is the Place for Me” conveys the immense optimism felt by this initial group of migrants to the colonial metropolis: London is the place for me London, this lovely city You can go to France or America India, Asia, or Australia But you must come back to London City Well believe me, I am speaking broad-mindedly I am glad to know my mother country I’ve been travelling to countries years ago But this is the place I wanted to know London, that’s the place for me To live in London you’re really comfortable Because the English people are very much sociable Dawson, Ashley.
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