A colourful montage: filmic modes in Edith Eaton’s ‘Away Down in Jamaica’

Edith Eaton’s narrative strategies in her short story ‘Away Down in Jamaica’ (1898) do more than describe; they evoke the perceptual logics of emergent screen media. Eaton employs what I term proto-cinematic strategies – including shifting focalisation, montage, visual framing, mise-en-scène, and sound – to create an immersive narrative experience, prompting readers toward visual and auditory engagement beyond the textual surface. This innovative approach deepens the story's exploration of race, gender, and colonial desire. Furthermore, Eaton strategically integrates intertextual references, drawing on canonical literature and cultural touchstones like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to subtly yet incisively critique dominant ideologies. By embedding sophisticated racial politics within visual cues and narrative ambiguities, Eaton achieves a non-essentialist representation of racial identity remarkably advanced for her time. This study positions Eaton as a pioneering figure whose formal experimentation significantly expands understandings of ethnic minority literature, cinematic narrative modes, and the transatlantic discourse on race and modernity.