Chapter 16 - Acts of Trespass and Collapsing Borders: Alternate Landscapes in Contemporary Caribbean-Canadian Literature

Summary

From the 1960s, significant numbers of Caribbean writers migrated to Canada, which modelled itself as a space of inclusion and multiculturalism. Yet, the terms of multiculturalism that structure Canadian public discourse have been challenged by first- and second-generation Caribbean writers who have critiqued Canada’s processes of homogenization and racism. This essay proposes alternate landscapes as a way to consider contemporary Caribbean-Canadian literature, which has had to transgress Canada’s sense of itself in order to be seen and heard. The work emerging from this period, and particularly from the 1980s, is written predominantly by women and posits non-territorially based spaces as its conceptual home. Through an examination of work by Dionne Brand, Makeda Silvera, NourbeSe Philip, Marie-Célie Agnant and Ramabai Espinet, among others, this article highlights their varied approaches to identity, nation, belonging and language, as well as the generic diversity of their work (dub poetry, science fiction, fantasy and satire).