Decolonizing Voices: World Literature and Broadcast Culture at the End of Empire
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Centre for Caribbean Studies
Abstract
"Decolonizing Voices" is a research project that investigates the interconnected history of radio broadcasting and literary production across three continents in the period 1945-1968. The study employs a mixture of scholarly approaches, including literary criticism, global book history, biographical writing and cultural studies. Focusing on the loosely articulated networks of literary and cultural production in the Anglophone Caribbean, the work of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation in Accra, and the mediating role played by the BBC Colonial Service, we will examine the involvement of these networks and institutions in shaping the stylistic and political contours of emerging world literatures in the twentieth century. The project aims to map out how cultural forms such as novels, poems, and short stories circulate through publishing and media channels across the globe, and the ways in which this circulation is rendered highly uneven by unequal international power relations, which are often the legacy of colonialism and imperialism. These inequalities are frequently manifested in the pressures placed on writers and artists from colonized and formerly colonized countries by publishing houses, broadcast institutions, and market forces.
The project will be based around archival research into material in the Caribbean, the UK, and West Africa, much of which is relatively unexplored. This material includes transcripts, letters, and programme information relating to various radio series broadcast in the Caribbean and Ghana in the 1940s and 1950s, including 'Caribbean Voices' and 'West African Voices'. These showcased the work of authors from those regions and were important in providing access for a wider public to discussions about literary, cultural and political issues during an era in which colonial rule was ending and the prospect of national independence was on the horizon. The project is unique in that it will bring together archival material currently scattered across three continents, examining this through a global optic attentive to the uneven circulation of cultural forms.
The project will make use of exclusive access to the papers, diaries, and letters of the BBC producer Henry Swanzy. Swanzy's career is indicative of the connections that existed between literary and broadcast histories across the three continents, having produced 'Caribbean Voices' between 1946-54, before becoming Head of Programmes for the Gold Coast Broadcasting System in Accra in 1954. Moreover, Swanzy's writings in his diaries provide a wealth of stories about working life both at the BBC and abroad, while also registering key cultural trends and the social and political upheavals of the post-war era. One of the principal aims of the project is to investigate how the BBC was enmeshed in the political discussions over race and immigration at the time.
"Decolonizing Voices" will produce a series of outputs both for an academic and a wider audience, including a popular critical edition of Swanzy's memoirs, as well as scholarly writings (articles, a short monograph) on the interconnections between literary and broadcast histories informed by recent debates on world literature and the politics of literary value. Another key output of the project will be a radio programme to be broadcast on the BBC World Service and stations in the Caribbean and Ghana. The programme will examine the importance of the historical relationships between media institutions, programme makers, and literary magazine series in the era of decolonization. Our programme, in revisiting these relationships, will help to inform and enhance discussions over the function and future of public service broadcasting in a "globalized age".
In these ways, the "Decolonizing Voices" project will make a vital contribution to an understanding of the relationships between literary production, the role of broadcasting as a medium of cultural expression, and the legacies of empire.
The project will be based around archival research into material in the Caribbean, the UK, and West Africa, much of which is relatively unexplored. This material includes transcripts, letters, and programme information relating to various radio series broadcast in the Caribbean and Ghana in the 1940s and 1950s, including 'Caribbean Voices' and 'West African Voices'. These showcased the work of authors from those regions and were important in providing access for a wider public to discussions about literary, cultural and political issues during an era in which colonial rule was ending and the prospect of national independence was on the horizon. The project is unique in that it will bring together archival material currently scattered across three continents, examining this through a global optic attentive to the uneven circulation of cultural forms.
The project will make use of exclusive access to the papers, diaries, and letters of the BBC producer Henry Swanzy. Swanzy's career is indicative of the connections that existed between literary and broadcast histories across the three continents, having produced 'Caribbean Voices' between 1946-54, before becoming Head of Programmes for the Gold Coast Broadcasting System in Accra in 1954. Moreover, Swanzy's writings in his diaries provide a wealth of stories about working life both at the BBC and abroad, while also registering key cultural trends and the social and political upheavals of the post-war era. One of the principal aims of the project is to investigate how the BBC was enmeshed in the political discussions over race and immigration at the time.
"Decolonizing Voices" will produce a series of outputs both for an academic and a wider audience, including a popular critical edition of Swanzy's memoirs, as well as scholarly writings (articles, a short monograph) on the interconnections between literary and broadcast histories informed by recent debates on world literature and the politics of literary value. Another key output of the project will be a radio programme to be broadcast on the BBC World Service and stations in the Caribbean and Ghana. The programme will examine the importance of the historical relationships between media institutions, programme makers, and literary magazine series in the era of decolonization. Our programme, in revisiting these relationships, will help to inform and enhance discussions over the function and future of public service broadcasting in a "globalized age".
In these ways, the "Decolonizing Voices" project will make a vital contribution to an understanding of the relationships between literary production, the role of broadcasting as a medium of cultural expression, and the legacies of empire.
Planned Impact
This is a wide-ranging project, the outputs of which will have several non-academic beneficiaries. Since it is in part about the history and status of the media and broadcast culture within wider society, the research is inherently imbedded in issues of public discourse beyond the academic realm.
One of the main users and beneficiaries of the project will be public sector and private sector media agencies in locations across the globe, primarily the BBC, the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and Joy FM in Accra, Ghana (JFM). "Decolonizing Voices" will be able to help these media agencies in their efforts to elucidate, account for and represent to the public the histories of their emergence and development. So far it has been difficult to place these histories in a coherent narrative given the fragmented and often incomplete nature of many archives. For example, much of the material relating to the BBC Colonial Service is scattered, with resources held either beyond UK shores, or in some cases in private collections. More specifically, separate parts of conversations and correspondence between contributors to Caribbean Voices is often broken up, and held on either side of the Atlantic. In addition, in both the Caribbean and West Africa the confusion and ferment of the end of colonial rule meant that archiving was rarely done systematically. This project will allow a fuller understanding of the individual histories of these national media agencies and the history of interconnection between them. This is of timely interest, as the era of "globalization" has led many national media organisations, involved in the global marketplace, to seek to emphasise the historic international dimensions of their operations.
Beyond the Higher Education sector, one of the project's outputs (the radio programme) may also appeal in particular to teachers in schools and colleges in the UK seeking to put together information on the history and role of the BBC as a national institution and global presence. Given the attention now paid to Black history and "globalization" within the national curriculum, this output may provide a useful case study in the history of cultural and political decolonization.
In addition, with its emphasis on the shaping influence had by the BBC on collective debates over race, nationalism, and immigration in the post-war era, and given both the developments in new technologies and recent discussions over the role and responsibilities of the media within the public sphere, the project will appeal to culturally and politically engaged members of the public beyond the bounds of academia. There is clearly a popular audience for the topics our project covers as evidenced by the recent BBC Radio Four broadcasts about the BBC and Empire, including Colin Grant's Caribbean Voices and Razia Iqbal's World Service Writers, as well as more general programmes on Caribbean literature such as Stir it Up: 50 years of writing Jamaica (10th September, 2012). Our project's investigations would help in informing and enhancing the public debates over the function and future of public service broadcasting in a "globalized age".
In the UK, information on the cultural history of national institutions such as public service broadcasters is relatively easily available. However, in parts of the Caribbean and West Africa this is less often the case. We envisage making such histories (of the CBC and GBC, for example) more widely accessible to local communities through specific outputs of the project. These outputs will maximise the potential international impacts of our work to as wide an audience as possible.
One of the main users and beneficiaries of the project will be public sector and private sector media agencies in locations across the globe, primarily the BBC, the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and Joy FM in Accra, Ghana (JFM). "Decolonizing Voices" will be able to help these media agencies in their efforts to elucidate, account for and represent to the public the histories of their emergence and development. So far it has been difficult to place these histories in a coherent narrative given the fragmented and often incomplete nature of many archives. For example, much of the material relating to the BBC Colonial Service is scattered, with resources held either beyond UK shores, or in some cases in private collections. More specifically, separate parts of conversations and correspondence between contributors to Caribbean Voices is often broken up, and held on either side of the Atlantic. In addition, in both the Caribbean and West Africa the confusion and ferment of the end of colonial rule meant that archiving was rarely done systematically. This project will allow a fuller understanding of the individual histories of these national media agencies and the history of interconnection between them. This is of timely interest, as the era of "globalization" has led many national media organisations, involved in the global marketplace, to seek to emphasise the historic international dimensions of their operations.
Beyond the Higher Education sector, one of the project's outputs (the radio programme) may also appeal in particular to teachers in schools and colleges in the UK seeking to put together information on the history and role of the BBC as a national institution and global presence. Given the attention now paid to Black history and "globalization" within the national curriculum, this output may provide a useful case study in the history of cultural and political decolonization.
In addition, with its emphasis on the shaping influence had by the BBC on collective debates over race, nationalism, and immigration in the post-war era, and given both the developments in new technologies and recent discussions over the role and responsibilities of the media within the public sphere, the project will appeal to culturally and politically engaged members of the public beyond the bounds of academia. There is clearly a popular audience for the topics our project covers as evidenced by the recent BBC Radio Four broadcasts about the BBC and Empire, including Colin Grant's Caribbean Voices and Razia Iqbal's World Service Writers, as well as more general programmes on Caribbean literature such as Stir it Up: 50 years of writing Jamaica (10th September, 2012). Our project's investigations would help in informing and enhancing the public debates over the function and future of public service broadcasting in a "globalized age".
In the UK, information on the cultural history of national institutions such as public service broadcasters is relatively easily available. However, in parts of the Caribbean and West Africa this is less often the case. We envisage making such histories (of the CBC and GBC, for example) more widely accessible to local communities through specific outputs of the project. These outputs will maximise the potential international impacts of our work to as wide an audience as possible.
Publications
Campbell C
(2016)
Glancing backwards: George Lamming, John Cowper Powys and vexed visions of labour in the capitalist world-ecology
in Green Letters
Campbell, C
(2017)
The Cambridge History of Black and Asian History in Britain
Campbell, C.
Cameron Duodu's Tough Guy in Town and Gab Boys
in Wasafiri
Christopher Campbell
The Stray Dog Adopted: Henry Swanzy goes to Jamaica
in Long Waves and Global Frequencies: World Literature and Broadcast Culture at the End of Empire
Christopher Campbell
Henry Swanzy at the BBC: World Literature and Broadcast Culture at the End of Empire
in King's College University of London, Postcolonial Seminar Series
Niblett M
(2016)
Bourdieu and Postcolonial Studies
Niblett, M
(2016)
Strange Correspondences: Late Capitalism and Late Style in the Work of Wilson Harris and John Berger
in Ariel: A Review of International English Literature
Smith, V
Amu Djoleto, A. A. Opoku, and Frank Parkes as Broadcasters and Writers
in Wasafiri
| Description | This project investigated the interconnected history of broadcasting culture across three continents in the post-war era. It focused on the loosely articulated networks of literary and cultural production in the Anglophone Caribbean, the work of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation in Accra, and the mediating role played by the BBC Colonial Service. Through an examination of these networks and institutions, we discovered how they shaped the stylistic and political contours of emerging world literatures in the twentieth century. Our close analyses of the diaries of Henry Swanzy, producer of the BBC radio programme Caribbean Voices, have enabled us to develop a clearer understanding of the complex linkages between metropolitan modernists and writers from the colonial world. In this way, our articles and conference papers have been able to intervene in recent debates over the constitution of global modernism and the dynamics of canon formation. We have brought to light how Swanzy's attitude to the material he broadcast might be understood as complexly related to changes in the post-war political order, in particular Britain's attempts to recalibrate its imperial position by stressing an ideal of 'commonwealth' that nominally ceded greater equality to its dominions without overturning the system as a whole. In a mirror of his political position, Swanzy's editorial preferences on Caribbean Voices simultaneously stressed 'local colour' while also policing the boundaries of taste and literary value in accordance with metropolitan expectations. We are finalizing the manuscript for the critical edition of extracts from Henry Swanzy's diaries, which throw fascinating light on the relationships between BBC programme-makers, Caribbean and West African writers, and the political climate at the end of empire. The project has also unearthed a number of new findings, including new archival material. As a result of Research Fellow' Victoria Smith's extensive research in the archives of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) - archives that have hitherto remained relatively inaccessible - we have uncovered the ambivalent role of seconded BBC personnel in the institutional history of GBC. This research also led to our developing contacts with academics, programme-makers, and creative writers, both those active at the time of GBC's original broadcasts and those working and writing today, within its legacy. As a result, we have been given access to unpublished archives such as diaries and memoirs, which have helped illuminate on the social and political forces impacting upon writers and programme-makers in the era of decolonization. Through the international conference we organized, we were able to bring together scholars working in a variety of disciplines to discuss the impact and influence of colonial policy on broadcast culture. As a result of contacts established at the conference, we are developing a special edition of the journal Wasafiri and a follow-up conference to be hosted at the University of Ghana. A one-day symposium at Warwick in November 2015 helped to develop the research findings further by examining the relationships between literary networks and visual artists from the Caribbean. We also conducted interviews with a series of relevant scholars, writers, and others who were involved with broadcast institutions or publishers such as the BBC, GBC, and James Currey Publishers. These interviews were recorded and placed on our project website, where they are accessible to all. The research we have carried out on this grant has also allowed us to produce a radio programme for broadcast in Ghana that examines the establishment of the flagship literary programme on the Gold Coast Broadcasting System (later GBC). Our work has also led us to pursue the re-publication of 'Voices of Ghana: Literary Contributions to Radio Ghana, 1955-57' (1958), a landmark of its time as an early anthology of Ghanaian writing in English. Having prepared the manuscript and established contributors, the Research Fellow has now secured the interest of the publishers (now represented by the Ministry of Communication) in re-producing the anthology. |
| Exploitation Route | As a result of our findings, particularly the archival material discovered in Ghana and in the BBC written archives in Caversham, we will be putting together a new project, building on the current research. This project will examine more specifically the institutional history of GBC, its literary legacies, and its entanglement in Cold War politics. As a result of responses to the production of the radio programme in Ghana, the Assistant Director of Radio at GBC has asked that project members might oversee the re-launch and production of 'Singing Net' (under its later name of 'Voices of Our Time') as a weekly series. The critical edition of Henry Swanzy's diaries will, we feel, be a great resource for scholars and students in the fields of Caribbean Studies, postcolonial studies, broadcast culture, and twentieth-century history. We have already received a number of expressions of interest from researchers and teachers working in these areas. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ccs/staff/postdocfellows/mniblett/worldliteratureandbroadcastculture/ |
| Description | Our research findings have been used as a springboard for a series of interview questions with leading writers, scholars, programme-makers, and publishers. They also became the basis for a popular literary and film evening, which brought together writers and film-makers associated in various ways with the Caribbean Voices radio programme and GBC to perform material originally broadcast on these platforms and to talk about its connection with their recent work. This cultural evening was attended not only by scholars and students, but also by members of the public. Our findings and the discussions we have had with Dr. James Procter (University of Newcastle) have informed the research of both parties. Procter's recent article in Small Axe on BBC producer Una Marson acknowledges our project's work on Henry Swanzy and Caribbean Voices. Our findings also provided the basis for the radio programme we have produced, to be broadcast later this year on Ghanaian Radio. Many of the interviews carried out in the course of the research have been featured in the script, along with archival findings from the project. The project's website, which hosted interviews by various writers, scholars, and programme-makers attracted attention from parties both within and outside the university. It raised the profile of the project sufficiently that project members were invited to contribute to the academic blog, Africa in Words. The Research fellow's blog post discussing the Ghanaian aspect of the project appeared on the 60th anniversary of the first broadcast of the programme 'Singing Net'. This then led to an invitation by the Royal African Society to present the findings of the project on the 'Emergent Discourses on African Literature' panel at the Africa Writes Conference, held at the British Library. This conference was open to and attended by members of the public. The Caribbean element of the project's findings and some of the archival materials was discussed at an open event at the University of Warwick, attended by academics, Caribbean artists (including renowned essayist and writer Thomas Glave), and members of the public. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Collaboration with Peepal Tree Press on conference on Caribbean publishing |
| Organisation | Peepal Tree Press |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We have an agreement with Peepal Tree Press to hold a conference here at the University of Warwick on Caribbean publishing. We will provide academic speakers, venue, and general facilities. We are currently planning this event with Peepal tree and are considering a joint application to the "Grants for All" stream at the Arts Council. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Peepal Tree Press will be joint applicants on the bid to the Arts Council. They will also use their contacts to actively bring to the cofnerence a host of international writers, performers, and other related individuals / institutions. |
| Impact | This is a multi-disciplinary collaboration. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Radio Docunmentary in partnership with Writers Project of Ghana and CitiFM |
| Organisation | Citi FM |
| Country | Ghana |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The research team has identified a suitable theme for a literary documentary to be aired in WPG's Sunday programme so that it appeals to the regular Sunday audience and responds to the themes of the AHRC-funded project. We have worked in collaboration with WPG to plan the concept for the documentary, and then taken this plan forward into scripting and recording. The completed documentary will fulfil WPGs aim that "By supporting a literary culture in this West African country, WPG advances the notion that a free exchange of ideas is essential to the health and prosperity of any community." The drive for contacting writers, undertaking interviews and completing the editing process comes from the research team, and the aim is that the finished documentary will be broadcast on CitiFM in March 2015 to form a part of the radio stations special events to mark the 57th anniversary of Ghana's independence. |
| Collaborator Contribution | WPG have consulted on the development of the concept for the documentary and contributed their time to assisting in planning the documentary, booking recording space, making contact with writers, musicians and other artists who are being interviewed, undertaking recordings and editing, and offering their regular Sunday evening literary slot on CitiFM for the broadcast of the documentary, as well as putting their well-respected name to the documentary project. CitiFM has allowed WPG to use their Sunday evening literary programme for the broadcast of this documentary and will advertise the documentary in the weeks and days leading up to it being aired. |
| Impact | Recordings of interviews with Professor J.H. Kwabena Nketia and Cameron Duodu, and poetry recordings with Nii Ayikwei Parkes. There are a number of other interviews and recordings planned to take place in the coming months. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Radio Docunmentary in partnership with Writers Project of Ghana and CitiFM |
| Organisation | Writers Project of Ghana |
| Country | Ghana |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The research team has identified a suitable theme for a literary documentary to be aired in WPG's Sunday programme so that it appeals to the regular Sunday audience and responds to the themes of the AHRC-funded project. We have worked in collaboration with WPG to plan the concept for the documentary, and then taken this plan forward into scripting and recording. The completed documentary will fulfil WPGs aim that "By supporting a literary culture in this West African country, WPG advances the notion that a free exchange of ideas is essential to the health and prosperity of any community." The drive for contacting writers, undertaking interviews and completing the editing process comes from the research team, and the aim is that the finished documentary will be broadcast on CitiFM in March 2015 to form a part of the radio stations special events to mark the 57th anniversary of Ghana's independence. |
| Collaborator Contribution | WPG have consulted on the development of the concept for the documentary and contributed their time to assisting in planning the documentary, booking recording space, making contact with writers, musicians and other artists who are being interviewed, undertaking recordings and editing, and offering their regular Sunday evening literary slot on CitiFM for the broadcast of the documentary, as well as putting their well-respected name to the documentary project. CitiFM has allowed WPG to use their Sunday evening literary programme for the broadcast of this documentary and will advertise the documentary in the weeks and days leading up to it being aired. |
| Impact | Recordings of interviews with Professor J.H. Kwabena Nketia and Cameron Duodu, and poetry recordings with Nii Ayikwei Parkes. There are a number of other interviews and recordings planned to take place in the coming months. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Voices of Ghana series with GBC |
| Organisation | Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) |
| Country | Ghana |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Having learnt about the research that our team is conducting into the history of literature being broadcast on GBC (formerly Gold Coast Broadcasting Service), the Director of Radio invited us to collaborate in re-launching the radio programme 'Voices of Ghana'. The programme had begun as Singing Net, edited by the BBC producer Henry Swanzy. This contribution will involve our research team working with Ghanaian writers to create a regular radio programme that showcases their poetry, short stories and plays, and includes discussions about relevant events and academic debates. |
| Collaborator Contribution | GBC is providing full access to their recording, editing and broadcasting equipment with relevant staff and production support from the Radio division. They will collaborate on the structure and scheduling, undertaking advertising and other promotion, and invite writers to contribute to the programme with occasional incentive. |
| Impact | GBC have asked that 5 programmes be completed before they begin to air. These programmes are in production. Staff and students from the University of Ghana's departments of Communication Studies, English, Performing Arts, Music, History and Physics are involved in the programmes. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | 'Inimitable Paintings': the work of Stanley Greaves and Wilson Harris |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Type Of Presentation | paper presentation |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This conference pushed our research forward by throwing new light on the relationship between visual artists and the literary and cultural networks associated with the Caribbean Voices radio programme and its contributors. The symposium explore, in particular, the relationship between those working in a modernist idiom within the Caribbean and their metropolitan interlocutors at media institutions. It featured not only talks by internationally recognised scholars but also contributions from the Director of Peepal Tree Press, the primary publisher of Caribbean and Black British writing in Britain today. A number of the undergraduate students who attended the conference were well engaged with the talks and expressed interest in now pursuing Caribbean literature at MA level. Also, informal discussions held at the conference have led to discussions that a new research network might be established to consider more specifically the role of visual artists in the literary and broadcast networks that our project examines. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Archive Symposium, Exeter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The symposium focused on the BBC as a dynamic contact zone for writers and intellectuals. It addressed the role which broadcasting played in telegraphing the end of empire and the ways in which it shaped a sense of identity in the imperial metropolis. The symposium brought scholars, students, curators and archivists together to debate new critical paradigms of World Literature and explored the challenges and opportunities when curating and researching broadcast archives in the digital age. Attendees included colleagues, students, and members of the public, many of whom described how their perceptions of the intellectual and literary networks at work in the BBC had been changed by the evidence presented at the symposium. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/events/details/index.php?event=5848 |
| Description | Long Waves and Global Frequencies: World Literature and Broadcast Culture at the End of Empire |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The project team organized this conference at the University of Warwick in order to disseminate our research findings thus far, as well as to provoke discussion with colleagues and peers from other institutions. It enabled us to invite speakers from the Caribbean, Ghana, and the UK to present papers and initiate critical debate on some of the key themes and research questions of the "Decolonizing Voices" project. Keynote speakers included James Procter (Newcastle), Helen Yitah (Ghana), Audrey Gadzekpo (Ghana), and Alison Donnell (Reading). The conference was attended by over 30 people, including not only academic peers and colleagues, but also postgraduate students, publishers, and members of the public. As part of the conference, we held two 'literary evenings' which were open to the public and free to attend, with the result that a number of people from the local area came to the university. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ccs/staff/postdocfellows/mniblett/worldliteratureandbroadcastcult... |
| Description | Peepal Tree Press conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a conference organized by Peepal Tree Press (who will publish the critical edition of Swanzy diaries). PI Michael Niblett was invited to speak at the event and present on the work the research team has been doing on Swanzy. Niblett read extracts from the Swanzy diaries to a large audience including academics, students, members of the public, and professionals such as creative writers and publishers. There was much interest in the diaries and anticipation over their publication, given their importance to an understanding of the development of Caribbean letters. In discussions afterwards, a number of attendees spoke of the new light the diary extracts had thrown on their views on the relationship between Swanzy and Caribbean writers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Series of interviews with writers, publishers, and other relevant people |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | We are conducting interviews with a series of relevant scholars, writers, publishers and others who were involved with the broadcast institutions or publishers that are the subject of our enquiry, or have written on these previously. These interviews were recorded and placed on our project website, where they are accessible to all. Sections of the interview will also be incorporated into the radio documentary we are currently producing. The interviews form the basis of an archive recording events, experiences, oral histories, and critical thinking on broadcast culture and the circulation of literary and other cultural texts in the post-war era between Britain, the Caribbean, and West Africa. The material is available for other scholars and the general public to listen to via our website. Insofar as some sections of the interview will be used in the radio broadcast, they will have a wider dissemination. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013,2014 |
| URL | http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ccs/staff/postdocfellows/mniblett/worldliteratureandbroadcastcult... |