Category: Reviews
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“Know No Shame”: Black Sails and Writing the Historical Fiction of Sexuality
Written by Jess Womack. The television series, Black Sails, approaches the question of “pre-modern” sexuality. Through a range of individual experiences, it offers a route to writing the historical fiction of sexuality.
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Review: Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World, Jessica Marie Johnson (2020)
Written by Jamie Gemmell. Dr. Jessica Marie Johnson’s 2020 book explores the lives of black women in colonial Louisiana. Beginning in West Africa and moving through colonial rule to the formation of the USA to produce a history of the Atlantic world.
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“Undeniable community service”: It’s A Sin and the Forgotten Women of the AIDS Crisis
Written by Ruby Hann. Russel T. Davies’ series It’s a Sin has captured the hearts of the British public with its tender portrayal of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the LGBT+ community. Yet, where are the women? Women were active throughout the crisis and it’s time that work was represented in the national conversation.
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Let the People Sing! A Story of Craigmillar by Helen Crummy
Written by Mhairi Ferrier. In a review of Let the People Sing! Mhairi explores the impact of the Community Arts Movement on Craigmillar, a neighbourhood in the south east of Edinburgh.
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The Female Body, Discipline, and Liberation: A Foucauldian Reading of Ghost in the Shell’s Museum Scene and AKB48’s Heavy Rotation
Written by Lingxiao “Linda” Gao. The 1995 Japanese cyberpunk anime film, Ghost in the Shell, and AKB48’s 2011 song, Heavy Rotation, can be read through a Foucauldian lens.
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Review: The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Written by Kvitka Perehinets. ‘The Silence of the Girls’, a 2018 novel by Pat Barker, offers a feminist interpretation of events in Homer’s ‘Iliad’, giving a voice to those who, for millennia, have remained unheard.
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Review: Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War, Vincent Brown (2020)
Written by Jamie Gemmell. One of the largest uprisings of enslaved people, “Tacky’s Revolt” saw over 500 enslaved men, women and children killed and many more recaptured. In his 2020 book, Vincent Brown, through a close examination of archival material, reframes the insurrection as a war in a greater Atlantic struggle.
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Bridgerton Review
Written by Jenn Gosselin. Bridgerton is the newest Netflix show taking the world by storm. Framed as a Regency style Gossip Girl, Jenn Gosselin takes a look at the enormous popularity of the show.
Retrospect Journal 