Liminality and (Trans)Nationalism in the Rethinking of the African Canadian Subjectivity: Esi Edugyan’s The Second Life of Samuel Tyne

Drawing on the concepts of liminality proposed by Arnold Van Gennep and Victor Turner and Althusser's three ideological tools that nationalism prescribe to be undertaken by individuals who try to become an integral part of a national community, this paper reads Esi Edugyan’s debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne (2004), as an exploration of the role of literature within the debate about the different positions of black Canadian subjectivity and national adherence. George Elliott Clarke and Rinaldo Walcott polarized the African Canadian criticism by proposing two different theories in an attempt to shape up and (re)define the subjectivity of black Canadians. Clarke advocates to include African Canadian subjectivity in the national desire to belong to a uniform Canadian culture and aims to establish the African Canadian identity in Canada’s national soil. Conversely, Walcott stands up for the defense of transnationality as the best way to explore and grapple with African Canadian subjectivi- ty aiming to contest racism while fostering self-definition. Declining Clarke’s theory, Walcott warns African Canadians to “think contrapuntally within and against the nation” (22) as a means to counteract a Canadian nationality that has historically exclud- ed its black citizens. It is my argument that The Second Life of Samuel Tyne fully participates in this debate and aligns partially with Walcott’s liminal status for black Canadians. The diasporic nature that defines Samuel Tyne together with his impossibility for succeeding and recognizing himself as truly Canadian place Edugyan’s novel within the scope of Walcott’s critical theory and helps to reconsider and to overtly challenge the image of Canada as a compassionate and egalitarian nation-state as well as to reconsider the negotiation of space. The concept of liminality stands as a valuable critical lens to highlight the retrieval of a transcultural African Canadian subjectivity that shows the complex and multiple faces of black Canadians. However, by setting forth a liminal subjectivity that aims to problematize black Canadian subjectivity, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne expands, to a certain extent, Walcott’s understanding of the diasporic approach by rejecting nostalgia as a melancholic hindrance. In this way, it bridges memory and present to cultivate a new reading of the diasporic approach that confirms an acute and more precise reading of the black Canadian experience. In so doing, the novel discusses the waning of the sovereignty of the Canadian nation-state and opts for uprootedness, transnational politics and deterritorialization as the way to extol a self-(re)definition of the coeval African Canadian subjectivity.</div

Indigeneidad afroperiférica en The Outer Harbour de Wayde Compton.

Black Canadian writer Wayde Compton’s short story collection The Outer Harbour (2015) is located in the Afroperiphery of British Columbia which stands as a ‘contact zone’ that enables the alliances between Black and Indigenous peoples and also establishes a fecund ground of possibilities to emphasize the way in which crossethnic coalitions and representations reconsider imperial encounters previously ignored. The stories participate in the recent turn in Indigenous studies towards kinship and cross-ethnicity to map out the connected and shared itineraries of Black and Indigenous peoples and re-read Indigeneity in interaction. At the same time, the stories offer a fresh way to revisit Indigeneity in Canada through the collaborative lens and perspective of the Afroperipheral reality. In doing so, they contribute to calling attention to current cross-ethnic struggles for Indigenous rights and sovereignty in Canada that rely on kinship and ethnic alliances to keep on interrogating the shortcomings of the nation’s multiculturalism.La colección de cuentos del escritor negro canadiense Wayde Compton The Outer Harbour (2015) se encuentra en la Afroperiferia de la Columbia Británica, que se erige como una 'zona de contacto' que permite las alianzas entre los pueblos negros e indígenas y también establece un terreno fecundo de posibilidades para enfatizar la forma en que las coaliciones y representaciones interétnicas reconsideran encuentros imperiales previamente ignorados. Las historias participan en el giro reciente de los estudios indígenas hacia el parentesco y la etnia cruzada para trazar los itinerarios conectados y compartidos de los pueblos negros e indígenas y releer la indigeneidad en la interacción. Al mismo tiempo, las historias ofrecen una nueva forma de volver a visitar la indigeneidad en Canadá a través de la lente colaborativa y la perspectiva de la realidad afroperiférica. Al hacerlo