Black Canadian Literature

[Tamith]

Can someone please give me some information on the status of Black Canadian Literature as a genre and participant in the concept of literature as a whole within the country?

I'm trying to find out if there are any issues that's surfaced within either the general area of Canadian Literature or the specific areas of Multicultural, Postcolonial, or Black Canadian Literature. For example, the issue within African American literature right now may be finding a way to better express universality within their work - so that any racial audience could read it and not immediately feel as if it's an 'African American novel,' you know?

Based on that, I'm wondering if there are any 'hot topics' that are present? I've heard quite a bit about folklore as well nowadays, since doing research on Canadian universities, but I'm also having trouble finding information on Black Canadian Literature scholars or university programs/majors. I know York University has a "Black Canadian Online" database, but are there any good sources available besides this one?

Any help would be appreciated. I'm not asking for a 'golden answer' as much as just a place to start with looking because Google's being less helpful than I expected it to be

Thanks so much!

 

[Tamith]

D: can't believe no one's responded to this

 

[Machjo]

Can someone please give me some information on the status of Black Canadian Literature as a genre and participant in the concept of literature as a whole within the country?

I'm trying to find out if there are any issues that's surfaced within either the general area of Canadian Literature or the specific areas of Multicultural, Postcolonial, or Black Canadian Literature. For example, the issue within African American literature right now may be finding a way to better express universality within their work - so that any racial audience could read it and not immediately feel as if it's an 'African American novel,' you know?

Based on that, I'm wondering if there are any 'hot topics' that are present? I've heard quite a bit about folklore as well nowadays, since doing research on Canadian universities, but I'm also having trouble finding information on Black Canadian Literature scholars or university programs/majors. I know York University has a "Black Canadian Online" database, but are there any good sources available besides this one?

Any help would be appreciated. I'm not asking for a 'golden answer' as much as just a place to start with looking because Google's being less helpful than I expected it to be

Thanks so much!

Honestly, I don't even know the race of some of the authors I've read, so I can't really comment on it. In fact, you're the first one I've seen use the term 'Black Canadian literature'. Sure I've heard and read about Black American literature, though I'm not sure whether I've read any (if I did, then the author certainly didn't bring race into the equation at all beyond perhaps describing Black characters).

To the best of my knowledge, few Canadians if any would really think of Black Canadian literature as a genre in its own right. One thing I'd noticed when I'd travelled to the US was that though Blacks did seem quite integrated overall, it did seem that in some parts there was still racial segregation to a degree. That would naturally mean different cultural experiences in those neighbourhoods compared to other parts. While there is certainly much racism in Canada too without a doubt, overall Blacks are far less segregated from what I've been able to observe, though we could say that you'll find more in major cities than in more isolated communities, but then I guess we'd have to reverse it and say that it's the whites that are more segregated then.

I can only speculate, but this might be the reason there really is no concept of a Black Canadian literary genre as such, though there may be books that do deal with racism without a doubt.

 

[ironsides]

Black Canadian culture.




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