Writing on the Margins: M. NourbeSe Philip and Questions of be/longing

Abstract

Tobago-born M. NourbeSe Philip is a poet and essayist living in Toronto, Canada. Her work often focuses on her experiences as a poet who is a Black immigrant woman. Although physically in Can-ada, Philip asserts that she writes from Tobago, creating a metaphorical isthmus that connects the culture and peoples of two spaces that were once British colonies and that share the same official language. By analyzing a selection of poems from She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks(1989) and essays from Bla_K: Essays & Interviews (2017), I aim at exploring how this metaphorical isthmus between Tobago and Canada is reflected in Philip’s work. Anchored to Fernando Ortiz’s concept of “transculturation” and Homi Bhabha’s concept of the “in-between,” I argue that Phil-ip’s poems and essays reflect how the poet negotiates her identity as a Black immigrant woman in a country such as Canada, and how this affects the way she moves in this cultural and geographic space.