Black And British

This chapter offers a detailed overview of the social, political, historical and cultural contexts in which Pinnock&s;s work was created and received. It provides a summary history of the Black presence in Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as explored in her plays. The chapter then outlines key theories relating to the formation of Black British identity, Black Feminism and the ways in which notions of diaspora, migration, belonging and unbelonging, as developed by Avtar Brah, Carol Boyce Davies, Paul Gilroy and Stuart Hall, are useful in developing a detailed understanding of Pinnock&s;s plays. It offers an overview of the development of distinct funding strands and support for Black British theatre and debates about Black aesthetics. Most importantly, it situates the intersectionality of Pinnock&s;s work and the ways in which it can be seen to serve the cause of anti-racism through its continued insistence on the centrality of the Black experience to British life and culture.