“A Geography of the Mind”

Abstract

A selection of fictional narratives written by Black Canadian women writers, who are themselves immigrants to Canada, speaks to some “unease” in the central characters' understanding of self, as well as their relation to the environments or places they occupy. The characters' concern about self in relation to place, Canada, both in terms of its physical and imaginative geographies, is depicted through their physical and psychical journeys. The literature reveals several psychological, sociological, and historical implications of migration and its effect on the Black female character's process of self-understanding. By employing the landscape as a metaphor of psychological reflection and/or self-awareness, these writers demonstrate the ways in which the Black female characters negotiate and articulate their understanding of self in relation to their environment and, in turn, the ways in which that engagement shapes their understanding of Canada and being Canadian.