The Black tile in Canadäs mosaic has long been neglected ¿ in historiography, literary criticism and public discourse. African-Canadian literature sets out to correct this absence. This study provides an in-depth look into the fiction of one of African-Canadian literature¿s foremost writers, Lawrence Hill. His novels provide a counter-memory, an antidote to the forgetfulness and neglect which often characterize Canadäs attitude towards its Black minority both past and present. Dominant collective memory versions are thus corrected to reflect a more faithful Canadian mosaic. Whether it is the enslavement of Blacks in Canada, de facto segregation or racial profiling ¿ Hill narrates histories which have rarely been told before. This book is the first to provide a comprehensive analysis of Hill¿s historical fictions.

Christian J. Krampe taught North American literature and culture at the University of Trier (Germany). He now teaches English and Social Sciences at a high school in Westphalia. His publications include articles on Canadian and US literature as well as teaching English as a foreign language.

Contents: Collective memory ¿ Maurice Halbwachs ¿ Blacks in Canada ¿ Black Loyalists ¿ African-Canadian literature ¿ Lawrence Hill¿s historical fiction ¿ Faction vs. Historiographic Metafiction vs. Documentary Novel ¿ The Slave Narrative ¿ «The Book of Negroes» ¿ «Any Known Blood» ¿ «Some Great Thing» ¿ Interview Lawrence Hill ¿ Interview George Elliott Clarke.