Voicing the Absented Presence of Blackness in Canada: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

Canada makes of multiculturalism its trademark in a process caught between a (yet to come) full openness toward cultural and linguistic diversity, and the removal of an ambiguous collective memory rooted in racio-cultural violence. One that at different times in Canadian history considered Black people unwanted citizens, making of their experience an “absented presence” within the Canadian discourse. Drawing on Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, the aim of this essay is to investigate the retrieval of part of that absented presence through an exploration of the 2015 miniseries The Book of Negroes (dir. Clement Virgo) which traces the life story of the West African storyteller Aminata Diallo as she is captured, sold into slavery and then slowly regains her freedom. The essay focuses on the analysis of the different semiotic resources employed in the miniseries and on the way a reflection of their co-articulation contributes not only to the meaning-making potential of the narrative but also to a specific response in the audience. The multiple ‘languages’ of storytelling through which Aminata’s story unfolds emphasise the need for a rethinking of national belonging by way of privileging diasporic affiliations that reject the violence inherent in monolithic and appropriating discourses.