"Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature is a pioneering study of African-Canadian literary creativity, laying the groundwork for future scholarly work in the field. Based on extensive excavations of archives and texts, this challenging collection of essays and reviews presents a history of African-Canadian literature and examines its debt to, and synthesis with, oral cultures. George Elliott Clarke identifies the literature's distinguishing characteristics, argues for its relevance to both African Diasporic and Canadian Studies, and critiques several of its key creators and texts.". "Scholarly and sophisticated, the survey cites and interprets the works of several major African-Canadian writers, including Andre Alexis, Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke, Claire Harris, and M. NourbeSe Philip. In so doing, Clarke demonstrates that African-Canadian writers and critics explore the tensions that exist between notions of universalism and black nationalism, liberalism and conservatism. These tensions are revealed in the literature that Clarke argues to be - paradoxically - uniquely Canadian and proudly apart from a mainstream national identity."--BOOK JACKET.