The Black Atlantic Reconsidered: Black Canadian Writing, Cultural History, and the Presence of the Past

560 Pages·2015·6.558 MB·English

by  Winfried Siemerling

THE BLACK ATLANTIC RECONSIDERED
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THE BLACK ATLANTIC
RECONSIDERED
Black Canadian Writing, Cultural History,
and the Presence of the Past
WINFRIED SIEMERLING
McGill-Queen’s University Press
Montreal & Kingston | London | Ithaca
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© McGill-Queen’s University Press 2015
ISBN 978-0-7735-4507-6 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-7735-4508-3 (paper)
ISBN 978-0-7735-8187-6 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-0-7735-8213-2 (ePUB)
Legal deposit second quarter 2015
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free
(100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation
for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications
Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada.
McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for
the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the
Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Siemerling, Winfried, author
The black Atlantic reconsidered : Black Canadian writing, cultural history, and the
presence of the past / Winfried Siemerling.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-0-7735-4507-6 (bound).–ISBN 978-0-7735-4508-3 (pbk.).–
ISBN 978-0-7735-8187-6 (ePDF).–ISBN 978-0-7735-8213-2 (ePUB)
1. Canadian literature – Black Canadian authors – History and criticism. 2. Canadian
literature – History and criticism. 3. Blacks in literature. 4. Culture in literature.
5. History in literature. 6. Transnationalism in literature. I. Title.
PS8089.5.B5S53 2015 C810.9’896071 C2014-908224-X
C2014-908225-8
Set in 10.5/13.5 Minion Pro with Gotham
Book design & typesetting by Garet Markvoort, zijn digital
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For Juanita De Barros
and for Henry Felix and Linus
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CONTENTS
Preface
ix
Acknowledgments
xi
chapter 1
Introduction: Modernity and Canadian
Time-Spaces of the Black Atlantic
3
PART I
EARLY TESTIMONY AND THE BLACK CANADIAN
NINETEENTH CENTURY
chapter 2
Slavery and Early Black Canadian Writing
33
chapter 3
The Black Canadian Nineteenth Century
67
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PART II
THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST
chapter 4
Slavery, the Black Canadian Nineteenth Century, and
Caribbean Contexts in Contemporary Black Canadian Writing
155
chapter 5
Other Black Canadas
291
chapter 6
Coda: Other Canadas, Other Americas,
the Black Atlantic Reconsidered
350
Appendix: Timeline
362
Notes
397
Works Cited
485
Index
523
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PREFACE
When I first immersed myself in contemporary black Canadian writing as
well as earlier texts and testimony, I was surprised to learn that this import-
ant aspect of Canadian culture had not received more attention. Why had
this material not been more central to previous literary theory and discus-
sion in Canada? And why was it so conspicuously absent from diasporic
critical conversations about the black Atlantic?
Some of the reasons will become apparent in this book’s introductory
chapter. Fortunately, a number of researchers have augmented the relevant
scholarship since I first undertook my own project. This volume builds
on their insights and discoveries in addition to the efforts of some critics,
theorists, sociologists, and historians who were earlier pioneers in the field.
The main purpose of this book is to contribute to the task of making the
fascinating and rich body of black Canadian writing available to a much
wider readership and for more extensive contexts of discussion. The plan
for this work has been to bring together in one place a critical account of
black writing in what is now Canada from its beginnings to the present, to
place this material in its diasporic black Atlantic and hemispheric contexts,
and to include both anglophone and francophone perspectives.
As a result, The Black Atlantic Reconsidered is a multi-dimensional study
that can be read and used in many ways. Since this account argues for a
close link between past and present and for an appreciation of the value of
relational connections, I hope that you will read it in its entirety. Most of the
material covered in this study, for instance, would seem relevant for courses
in black Canadian cultural studies or Canadian literature and culture. Some
courses, discussion groups, or scholars, however, might use the volume as
background reading while focusing on particular sections in related con-
texts. A more general introduction to North American literature and cul-
ture, a period course, or an introduction to the black Atlantic, for example,
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