Queer Livity in the Caribbean: Rosamond S. King’s Island Bodies

This essay responds to Rosamond S. King’s Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination (2014) by noting the convergence of progressive legislation and violence that renders notions of transgression and freedom contradictory and fraught in our contemporary moment, thus helping to frame the book’s relevance. Island Bodies draws attention to the sexed subject’s embeddedness in notions of authenticity (within the Caribbean as well as in relation to first-world narratives of emancipation) and to the dominance of biological men in discussions of Caribbean sexualities, among other issues. King’s insistence on analyzing fiction alongside nonfictional contexts, such as court cases and queer organizing, provides a rich texture for the consideration of transgressive sexualities, while also raising questions about archives, presence, and the production of knowledge.