Hyphens, Boundaries and Third SpacesIdentity and Cultural Politics in Afro-Caribbean-Canadian Writing

Abstract

«Hyphens, Boundaries and Third Spaces: Identity and Cultural Politics in Afro-Caribbean- Canadian Writing». This paper intends to show that Afro-Caribbean-Canadian writers use the indeterminacy of the cultural/national in-between to reconceptualise the position of the Afrosporic subject in Canada, since the dominant ambivalence of this space allows them to inhabit a continuous oscillation between the preservation of difference and the pursuit of similarity. Firstly, the definition of the term transculture provides the scene in which to root contemporary Afro-Caribbean-Canadian writing. Secondly, a diachronic sketch through such a cultural manifestation by resorting to the works of its most representative figure, Austin Clarke, shows how the field has been shifting to reach the present stage of textual diversity, which precludes the firm constitution of the field itself. Finally, I briefly turn to the concept of the third space of intervention, which is a necessary condition for the enunciation of difference in a transcultural frame that counteracts the paradigm of diversity brought to light by the 1988 Canadian Multicultural Act.