Journal of West Indian Literature
Volume 26, Issue 2
November 2018

The Journal of West Indian Literature presents a special issue dedicated to the novels of Marlon James. “From his first novel, John Crow’s Devil, that engages queer sexual identity, religious dogmatism and violence, through his outstanding second novel, The Book of Night Women, that focuses on slavery, racial hegemony and female agency, to The Brief History of Seven Killings, which looks at the political upheaval of the 1970s, transnational crime and popular culture, James has created dramatic renditions of Jamaican history.” (CFP)

The Journal of West Indian Literature (JWIL) is a UWI-led Caribbeanist project invested in highlighting and critically examining the prolific literary production of the Anglophone Caribbean. The journal publishes articles in English that are the result of scholarly research in literary textuality (fiction, poetry, drama, film, theory and criticism) of the English speaking (cricket playing) Caribbean and in translation from other parts of the archipelago.  JWIL also publishes book reviews, and, in time, hopes to include reviews of theatre and film productions.

Table of Contents

Guest Editors,  Michael A. Bucknor and Kezia Page, “Authorial Self-fashioning, Political Denials and Artistic Distinctiveness: The Queer Poetics of Marlon James”

Articles

• Sheri-Marie Harrison, “Marlon James and the Metafiction of the New Black Gothic”
• Lauren Shoemaker, “Femme Finale: Gender, Violence and Nation in Marlon James’ Novels”
• Emma Crowley, “‘So Many Incredible Gehennas’: Musicality and (the Poetics of) ‘Relation’ in Marlon James’ Novels”
• Jhordan Layne, “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“
• Michael K. Walonen, “Violence, Imperialism and Male Socialization in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings“
• Njelle W. Hamilton, “‘Jah Live’: Messianic Time and Post-Traumatic Narrative Disorder in Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings“
• Caryn Rae Adams, “Uncomfortable Truths: Lifewriting, Trauma and Survivance in Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings“

Book Reviews

• Evelyn O’Callaghan reviews Barbara Lalla’s Grounds for Tenure
• Laurence Breiner reviews John Robert Lee’s Collected Poems 1975-2015
• Angeletta KM Gourdine reviews Angelique V. Nixon’s Resisting Paradise: Tourism, Diaspora and Sexuality in Caribbean Culture

Articles are available via paid subscription here. To subscribe to JWIL click here.