The Unfinished Revolution: Black Perceptions of Eastern Europe

This article examines the ways in which black British writers relate to Eastern European spaces, especially during and after the communist era. After offering insights into the history of black writing about the East during the twentieth century, some works from the more recent past are considered, in particular Caryl Phillips's travelogue The European Tribe, Abdulrank Gurnah's novel By the Sea and Mike Phillips's thriller A Shadow of Myself They arc read with a focus on the way in which they use the Eastern space in order to assess discourses about blackness and race.