Orality and the Body in the Poetry of Lillian Allen and Dionne Brand: Towards an Embodied Social Semiotics‪.‬

Introduction Recently, while waiting for calaloo in the Caribbean take-out shop around the corner from our flat, I had a conversation with the dark-brown-skinned cook. Where did I live, he asked? "Up near Ruskin Park," I said, wishing to share my pleasure in the park, and belatedly aware that I was also overtly indicating privilege. On the edges of Brixton as we are, one's choice of names is a statement of social allegiance. Did I like London? Yes; well, I liked Brixton (again, impulsively sharing my pleasure, but now aware of the signalling of allegiances). Where was I from? As always, a second of hyper-awareness, of computing contexts: if I had been speaking Spanish, I would say "Cuba," though I was an immigrant to Anglo-Canada at age five; when I lived in bilingual Montreal I would say "Ottawa," the bilingual border-city where I grew up; but here in London, I say "Canada," letting the semiotics of dialect and skin colour convey erroneous signals. I am only white English-Canadian in certain times and places.