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Fugitive rhythms : re-imagining diasporic Caribbean-Canadian communities in Ramabai Espinet's The Swinging Bridge, Tessa McWatt's Out of My Skin, and Dionne Brand's What We All Long For

How do immigrants to Canada experience exile and diaspora? What happens when a person does not identify with a nostalgic past "there" or a present "here," but rather with "nowhere"? I am interested in the development of a diasporic critical consciousness in three recent novels by Caribbean-Canadian women writers. This paper uses theories of diaspora, cosmopolitanism, hybridity, kala pani discourse, and anti-racist feminist analysis to discuss Ramabai Espinet's The Swinging Bridge (2003), Tessa McWatt's Out of My Skin (1998), and Dionne Brand's What We All Long For (2005). Overall the novels explore the potential of art and artistic strategies to express the complex condition of diaspora, to form alliances between different cultural and ethnic communities, and to enable social and political change. While acknowledging the violent and traumatic historical factors that have contributed to diaspora, the novels look to art and hybridity as sites of resistance and hope.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.99396
Date January 2006
CreatorsWaisvisz, Sarah Gabriella.
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Arts (Department of English.)
Rights© Sarah Gabriella Waisvisz, 2006
Relationalephsysno: 002571877, proquestno: AAIMR28582, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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