Rewriting

Polytropic Identities

in the Postmodern African American Novel

Chapter V

“Fiction-Made Characters”

Parodying Stereotypes in Ishmael Reed’s

Flight to Canada

A lot of my books, people say, are all fiction, but Flight to Canada, and some of the rest of them, are based on research. So there’s fact there, too (Reed, in Martin 1983, 2).

With myth-bending ingenuity, Reed merges history, fantasy, political reality, and high comedy as he parodies the fugitive slave narrative: the slave poet Quickskill flees to Canada on a nonstop jumbo jet; Abe Lincoln waltzes through slave quarters to the tune of “Hello Dolly;” the plantation mistress lies in bed watching the Beecher Hour on TV. Flight to Canada’s preposterous episodes leap out from the pages of history to reveal a keen sense of America past and present (The New York Times Book Review).¹