Cultural Maroonage: Transgressing Boundaries in Black Canadian Writings in English and French
Cultural Maroonage: Transgressing Boundaries in Black Canadian Writings in English and French

Author(s): Anna Branach-Kallas
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, French Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Black Canada; cultural maroonage; border crossing
Summary/Abstract: The goal of this article is to examine the tactics of cultural maroonage and border crossing in selected works of four Black Canadian writers: Lawrence Hill, George Elliott Clarke, Marie-Célie Agnant and Stanley Péan. I define cultural maroonage after Joël Des Rosiers as a literary strategy which involves linguistic manipulation, a focus on the phenomena of migration, enslavement, and/or racism, and a struggle against cultural imperialism. Excess, stylistic heterogeneity, and appropriation of dominant modes of representation are the most important examples analysed in this article. My purpose is also to challenge the stereotypical separation of Black Canadian writings in English and French to illustrate the richness of Black Canada and the variety of Black Canadian cultural heritage.

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