Project

The True (Black) North: Surveying the Contours of African Canadian Identity through Contemporary Fiction

Program

ACLS Project Development Grants

Department

English and Communication

Abstract

This project aims to articulate a more nuanced understanding of how African American and African Canadian identities have been represented in contemporary fiction. It emphasizes not only the overlaps between these two literary-cultural traditions, but also the areas in which existing models of diasporic black solidarity fall short of explaining the significant divergences between them. The grant will fund trips to archives and scholarly conferences, as well as the acquisition of primary and secondary source materials.