This project addresses reveals the scale and scope of literature in the most spoken South Asian languages in Britain: Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali and Gujarati. Three outputs will arise from this research, firstly a database that maps writers, their works and sites of publication. Secondly a selection of translated works to make this literature more widely known and finally a monograph that outlines thematic concerns in the literature.
Laying the foundations for reading the vernacular formation requires mapping its extent, thus one of the outputs from this project will be to establish a database of the main writers, their outputs and publication sites, in Urdu, Bengali (Bangla), Punjabi and Gujarati. This will be the first database of its kind, publicly accessible providing a multilingual resource for scholars and writers.
The database will also be open, such that writers can upload their own information and samples of work (if digitally available)