Domestic Noir in Trinidad: Elizabeth Nunez’ Bruised Hibiscus

Reading Elizabeth Nunez’ Bruised Hibiscus (2000) as domestic noir, this article positions the novel in relation to the early twenty-first-century resurgence of the genre, while at the same time mapping it on to the political, sociocultural and legal contexts of mid to late twentieth century Trinidad and Tobago. Drawing on Cristina Sharpe’s concept of ‘monstrous intimacies’, the article considers how Bruised Hibiscus connects the dynamics of intimate partner violence both to family histories of abuse and to longer histories of colonialism, slavery and indenture. Through her critical engagement with domestic noir conventions, Nunez examines both the historical roots of sexual and gender-based violence in Trinidad and Tobago and the media, oral and legislative discourses which frame it.