Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Written texts and sung verse are both italicized in James’s novel. How would you compare and contrast the different kinds of italicized texts—those read and those heard?

Orality plays a large role in Black Leopard, Red Wolf. How would you compare and contrast verbal sparring seen in dialogue with Tracker’s one-sided jabs at the unseen Inquisitor?

Consider the slave rebellion at Dolingo. What are some implications of dark-skinned people owning slaves? How could this form of slavery—where people breed slaves—contrast with other forms of slavery in the novel—where people buy slaves—and the peculiar institution of slavery in the United States?

Historically, large-scale witch trials were accusations lodged at unmarried women (usually widows) who gained some sort of power (usually inherited property from their deceased husbands). How are Tracker’s frequent accusations of witchcraft similar to and different from the accusations during the early modern period (the Reformation)? 

Gender roles—represented through synecdoche in genital surgery—appear throughout the novel. How do Tracker’s opinions about bodies and gender change over the course of the novel?

Phallic symbolism is an important motif throughout Black Leopard, Red Wolf. What do swords represent? List some of them, and how do they function in the text?

Each of the six parts of the novel include epigraphs in a language in English, and James sometimes includes a definition in the following chapters. What are some effects of including multiple languages—including imaginary ones—in a text?

There are several bird monsters, or winged beasts, in James’s text. How do these creatures draw upon African and other mythologies? What do they represent within the text?