Signifying the In-Between: Race and Identity in Lawrence Hill’s Any Known Blood and Black Berry Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada

Abstract

En su novela Any Known Blood y su libro de no ficción “Black Berry Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada” Lawrence Hill presenta la ambivalencia de ser mestizo en Canadá. Este espacio liminal que caracteriza al sujeto birracial permite a Hill defender nociones de nacionalidad y cultura que refutan ideas preconcebidas e idealizadas sobre el sentido de identidad, especialmente la de los sujetos negros. Al exponer los vínculos históricos entre los negros de Canadá y Estados Unidos, el autor expone las grietas de la política del multiculturalismo y desafía la metanarrativa canadiense que establece Canadá como un lugar libre de racismo, en contraposición con los Estados Unidos.

In his novel Any Known Blood and his non-fiction book Black Berry Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada Lawrence Hill presents the ambivalence of being neither white nor Black in Canada. This in-between space which characterises the mixed-race subject allows Hill to propose a notion of nationhood and culture which contests fixed, idealized preconceptions around the sense of identity, particularly that of Black people. By exposing the historical links between Blacks in Canada and the United States as well as Canadian on-going racism in spite of multicultural policies, the author challenges the Canadian metanarrative which constructs Canada as a place where race does not matter, in contrast with its Southern neighbour.