Vulnerability across Borders: Au nord d'Albany and Absence of Wings

This article addresses vulnerability in the Americas via a comparison of a Québécois film, Au nord d'Albany (North of Albany; dir. Farley 2022) and an Anglo-Canadian collection of poetry, Arleen Paré's Absence of Wings (2023). Despite differences in medium and aesthetics, both texts engage with vulnerability and the crossing of nation-state borders in the Americas. The constituent nation-states represented in these texts have specific relationships to each other and to continental assertions of power; moreover, power and vulnerability within these nation-states-not simply across them-vary significantly. Both the film and the collection revolve around the figure of a Black daughter to a single, white mother who attempts to mitigate elements of vulnerability for their daughter's sake. Whereas Au nord d'Albany's contrast between Canada and the United States both reinforces and troubles stereotypical distinctions between these nation-states, Absence of Wings focuses primarily on the racist failings of the Canadian state, while also invoking the United States and Brazil. These texts also engage with narratives of hospitality, and lack