African American Review

Abstract:

This paper analyzes Dionne Brand's novel Love Enough (2014) and Wayde Compton's short-story collection The Outer Harbour (2014) through a theoretical framework that establishes a three-way conversation with Rosi Braidotti's thinking on the interconnection of space, subjectivity, and ethical consciousness; Wayde Compton's theorization of black Canadian spatiality in terms of what he calls "assertive Afroperipheralism"; and Hortense Spillers's notion of black diasporic culture. It suggests that within a postmodern scenario of apocalyptic crises and generalized awareness of failing illusions, these works spell out a new black diasporic actuality in the cities of Vancouver and Toronto by connecting current theoretical speculations on the achievement of equality and environmental sustainability to specific social realities.