Remaking Britain: The Afro-Caribbean Impact on English Literature

Abstract

Nowadays, the Afro-Caribbean community is well-represented in Britain, and the metropolitan area of London is regarded as a global hub for diaspora minorities and multicultural races. A new generation of Afro-Caribbean writers, including Benjamin Zephaniah, the subject of this essay, along with a few selected other writers of African or Asian descent, have departed from earlier concerns by identifying themselves not as ethnic groups but rather as Britons. This contrasts with the majority of writers of African or Asian descent who explore issues of race, discrimination, identity, and equality. Hence, the study operates in two levels. It first seeks to highlight the growth of this new wave of Afro-Caribbean writers as a shaping cultural force in Britain. Second, it will emphasize how important their creative works were in reshaping England's literary canon in the aftermath of T. S. Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent." Hence, the research will demonstrate Benjamin Zephaniah's ability to identify as British and, as a result, his literary influence on English literature through the analysis of a selection of his poems and prose writing.