The Public Spectacle of Physical Punishment in Malone James’s The Book of Night Women

DOI

10.2991/icadce-18.2018.71How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Malone James; The Book of Night Women; physical punishment; public Spectacle

Abstract

The public spectacle of the physical punishment of black slaves in Malone James's The Book of Night Women is an academic problem worth discussing. Physical punishment, as a normal punishment in the daily life of black slaves, refers not only to the punishment itself, but also to a dynamic public spectacle. In the book, the corporeal punishment that has become a public spectacle is divided into the public spectacle of official punishment and the public spectacle of lynching punishment due to the different executors. The former has the functions of purging evil, restoring damaged social order and uniting the white people. The latter has the functions of repressing people, awing people, letting out white people’s anxiety and showing their power. The public spectacles of the two types of punishment scenes, no matter what the above functions they are equipped with, are a reflection of the power hierarchy relationship and are representations of the colonial system at that time.

Copyright

© 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yingjie Liu
PY  - 2018/07
DA  - 2018/07
TI  - The Public Spectacle of Physical Punishment in Malone James’s The Book of Night Women
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Arts, Design and Contemporary Education (ICADCE 2018)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 334
EP  - 338
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/icadce-18.2018.71
DO  - 10.2991/icadce-18.2018.71
ID  - Liu2018/07
ER  -