Analysis of the Community of Black Female Slaves in The Book of Night Women from the Perspective of Community Theory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/y58nrq83Keywords:
Marlon James, The Book of Night Women, Slavery, Community, Formation and DisintegrationAbstract
Marlon James is a prominent Jamaican writer renowned for his ingenious plots of horror and the intersecting themes of violence and gender. Shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Book of Night Women presents a neo-slave narrative. The most striking element is the community for enslaved women. Amid the bloody and violent plantations, their solidarity and willpower deserve praise. Based on the systematical community theory proposed by Tönnies, Anderson and Bauman, the paper analyzes the evolution of the community of black female slaves. Begun by the fear of oppression, the status of common blood lineage and dual otherness, the community ends with fragmentation due to individual betrayals and inherent fragility.
Downloads
References
[1] Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London and New York: Verso, 2006.
[2] Bauman, Zygmunt. Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World. Cambridge: Polity Press.
[3] Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge.
[4] Burnard, Trevor. “Slaves and Slavery in Kingston, 1770–1815.” International Review of Social History, 65.S28 (2020): 39-65.
[5] Carson, Warren J. “Review of The Book of Night Women”, CLA Journal, 53. 2 (2009): 229–233.
[6] Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove Press, 2008.
[7] Forbes, Curdella, “Bodies of Horror in Marlon James’s The Book of Night Women and Clovis Brown’s Cartoons.”Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, 21. 3 (2017): 1-16.
[8] Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage Books.
[9] Hall, Sturat. “The Spectacles of the Other.” in Representation: Cultural Reprsentations and Signifying Prctices. London, Thousands Oaks and New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1997, p. 223-290.
[10] Hannan, Jim. “Review of The Book of Night Women”, World Literature Today, 84. 1(2010): 66.
[11] Harrison, Sheri-Marie. “Marlon James and the Metafiction of the New Black Gothic.” Journal of West Indian Literature, 26. 2 (2018): 1–17.
[12] James, Marlon. The Book of Night Women. New York: Riverhead Books, 2009.
[13] Jiang, Zhengyi. The Theme of Violence in Marlon James’s “A Brief History of Seven Killings”. Master’s thesis, Hangzhou Normal University, 2023.
[14] Layne, Jhordan. “Re-Evaluating Religion and Superstition: Obeah and Christianity in Marlon James’s The Book of Night Women and William Earle Jr.’s Obi, or The History of Three-Fingered Jack.” Journal of West Indian Literature, 26. 2 (2018): 50–65.
[15] Liu, Shuai. Semantic Translation and Communicative Translation Research: A Case Study on the Translation of Marlon James’s “A Brief History of Seven Killings”, Master’s thesis, Beijing Foreign Studies University, 2017.
[16] Liu, Yingjie. “The Public Spectacle of Physical Punishment in Malone James’s The Book of Night Women.” 4th International Conference on Arts, Design and Contemporary Education (ICADCE 2018). Atlantis Press, 2018.
[17] Mari, Megan. “Review of Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World”, Community Literacy Journal, p.115-117.
[18] Mason, Sheena Michele. “Revisioning Unalignment and Freedom: Insurrectionist Ethics in Marlon James’ The Book of Night Women.” in Insurrectionist Ethics: Radical Perspectives on Social Justice, New York: Palgrave MacMillian Publishing, 2023, p.15-38.
[19] Nehl, Markus. “A Vicious Circle of Violence: Revisiting Jamaican Slavery in Marlon James’s The Book of Night Women (2009).” in Transnational Black Dialogues: Re-Imagining Slavery in the Twenty-First Century, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2016, p.161–190.
[20] Ozuna, Ana. Feminine Power: Women Contesting Plantocracy in The Book of Night Women." Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies 10.3 (2017): 132-148.
[21] Rini Mathew, K. Varsha. “Conflict in Caribbean Women Consciousness during Anti-Slavery Movement: Detailing From ‘The Long Song’ By Andrea Levy and ‘The Book of Night Women’ By Marlon James.” International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE), 8. 7C (2019): 203-207.
[22] Sangi, Sangeeta. “The ‘True Darkness’ of the Slave Woman: Portrayal of Women and Violence in Marlon James’ The Book of Night Women.” Editorial Board, 3.1 (2018): 13-17.
[23] Schwartz, Jessica. “True Darkness and True Womanness”: A Study of Sisterhood in Marlon James’ The Book of Night Women.” Diss. Montclair State University, 2021.
[24] Shoemaker, Lauren. “Femme Finale: Gender, Violence and Nation in Marlon James’ Novels.” Journal of West Indian Literature, 26. 2 (2018): 18–33.
[25] Song, Jie. “‘Imagined Oral History’of Jamaica — Review of Marlon James’s Crime Fiction A Brief History of Seven Killings.” Journal of Hubei University of Education, vol. 33, no. 11, 2016, pp. 20–23.
[26] Tönnies, Ferdinand. Community and Society. New York: Dover Publications, 2011.
[27] Wang, Hui. Strategies for Translating Culture-Specific Items in “A History of Seven Killings”. Master’s thesis, Beijing Foreign Studies University, 2017.
[28] Wang Ming’an. The Limits of Michel Foucault. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press.
[29] Zhao, Nan. “A Chronicle of Seven Killings: The Writing of Violence in A Brief History of Seven Killings.” Overseas English, no. 22, 2021, pp. 246–248.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Education and Humanities
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
