Violent Liaisons: Historical Crossings and the Negotiation of Sex, Sexuality, and Race in The Book of Night Women and The True History of Paradise

Abstract

Research Article| July 01 2012 Violent Liaisons: Historical Crossings and the Negotiation of Sex, Sexuality, and Race in The Book of Night Women and The True History of Paradise Sam Vásquez Sam Vásquez Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Small Axe (2012) 16 (2 (38)): 43–59. https://doi.org/10.1215/07990537-1665668 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Sam Vásquez; Violent Liaisons: Historical Crossings and the Negotiation of Sex, Sexuality, and Race in The Book of Night Women and The True History of Paradise. Small Axe 1 July 2012; 16 (2 (38)): 43–59. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/07990537-1665668 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsSmall Axe Search Advanced Search Increased criticism and representations of violence in contemporary Jamaica often account for these tensions by citing poverty or gang and political rivalries in the post-independence era. However, both Marlon James's The Book of Night Women (2009) and Margaret Cezair-Thompson's The True History of Paradise (1999) take these explorations a step further, specifically examining women's responses to violence and reminding readers that present-day sexual violence creates conditions of entrapment, hostility, and lawlessness reminiscent of the barbarities of slavery and colonialism. In so doing, the authors highlight the ways historical gender and racial stereotypes inform contemporary understandings of Caribbean gender and sexuality. Anchoring this discussion in recent theories about sex and sexuality and specifically examining mixed-race and white Caribbean women, Sam Vásquez argues that both authors use neo–slave narrative tropes to simultaneously problematize acts of violence against these individuals and demonstrate how women engaged and even utilized limiting colonial paradigms. © 2012 by Small Axe, Inc.2012 Issue Section: Articles You do not currently have access to this content.