Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature

Odysseys Home - Mapping African-Canadian Literature is a study of African-Canadian literary creativity, laying the groundwork for future scholarly work in the field. Based on extensive excavations of archives and texts, this passage through 12 essays presents a history of the literature and examines its debt to, and synthesis with, oral cultures. George Elliott Clarke identifies African-Canadian literature’s distinguishing characteristics, argues for its relevance to African Diasporic Black and Canadian Studies, and critiques several of its key creators and texts. The survey cites and interprets the works of several major African-Canadian writers, including Andre T. Alexis, Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke, Claire Harris, and M. Nourbese Philip. In so doing, Clarke demonstrates that African-Canadian writers and critics explore the tensions that exist between notions of universalism and black nationalism, liberalism and conservatism. These tensions are revealed in the literature in what Clarke argues to be - paradoxically - uniquely Canadian and proudly apart from a mainstream national identity. Clarke has unearthed previously unconsidered authors, and charted the relationship between African-Canadian literature and that of Africa, African America, and the Caribbean. In addition to the essays, Clarke has assembled a bibliography of texts - literature and criticism - from both English and French Canada.