2024/2025 Black Literatures and Cultures in Canada

This course introduces students to Black Canadian Studies from a historical, cultural and especially literary perspective. Since Canadian blacks constitute only about 2 per cent of the country’s population, blackness is not considered natural to Canada and is always under a threat of erasure there. By examining and contextualizing a number of non-fictional and fictional texts produced by blacks in Canada, we are going to look into how black Canadian authors question the discourse of Canadian whiteness and challenge Canada’s positive image as the North Star or Canaan Land for black people.