British Multicultural Literature and Superdiversity

Book excerpt: This book explores contemporary British multicultural multi-genre literature. Considering socio-political and philosophical ideas about British multiculturalism, superdiversity and conviviality, Ulla Rahbek studies a broad range of texts by writers from across the majority-minority divide. The text focuses on figurative registers and metaphorical richness in multicultural poetry and investigates the interlocked issue of recognition, representation and identity in memoirs. Rahbek analyses how twenty-first-century British multicultural novels both envision and reimagine an inclusive nation and thematise the detrimental effects of individual exclusion on characters’ pursuits of the good life. She observes the ways that short stories pivot on ambivalent encounters and intercultural dialogue, and she reflects on the public good of multicultural literature.