Feminism, Literature and Rape Narratives

The essays in this volume discuss narrative strategies employed by international writers when dealing with rape and sexual violence, whether in fiction, poetry, memoir, or drama. In developing these new feminist readings of rape narratives, the contributors aim to incorporate arguments about trauma and resistance in order to establish new dimensions of healing. This book makes a vital contribution to the fields of literary studies and feminism, since while other volumes have focused on retroactive portrayals of rape in literature, to date none has focused entirely on the subversive work that is being done to retheorize sexual violence. Split into four sections, the volume considers sexual violence from a number of different angles. 'Subverting the Story' considers how the characters of the victim and rapist might be subverted in narratives of sexual violence. In 'Metaphors for Resistance,' the essays explore how writers approach the subject of rape obliquely using metaphors to represent their suffering and pain. The controversy of not speaking about sexual violence is the focus of 'The Protest of Silence,' while 'The Question of the Visual' considers the problems of making sexual violence visible in the poetic image, in film and on stage. These four sections cover an impressive range of world writing which includes curriculum staples like Toni Morrison, Sarah Kane, Sandra Cisneros, Yvonne Vera, and Sharon Olds.

ISBN 0415806089   Pages 268 ISBN13 9780415806084 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 510 Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd   Published in London Imprint Routledge   Series title Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures Format Hardback   Height (mm) 229 Publication date 25 Jan 2010   Width (mm) 152 DEWEY 809.933556   Spine width (mm) 18 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level Postgraduate, Undergraduate

		List of Figures
		Foreword: 'An Unsafe Subject' by Moniza Alvi
1		Introduction: Feminism without Borders: The Potentials and Pitfalls of Retheorizing Rape by Zoe Brigley Thompson and Sorcha Gunne		1
Pt. I		Subverting the Story
2		Rape by Proxy in Contemporary Caribbean Women's Fiction by Carine M. Mardorossian		23
3		Sabotaging the Language of Pride: Toni Morrison's Representations of Rape by Tessa Roynon		38
4		Revising Chicana Womanhood: Gender Violence in Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street by Robin E. Field		54
Pt. II		Resistance Metaphors
5		Between 'Awra and Arab Literary Feminism: Sexual Violence and Representational Crisis in Nawal El Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero by Anna Ball		71
6		Writing Rape: The Politics of Resistance in Yvonne Vera's Novels by Fiona McCann		85
7		Il/legitimacy: Sexual Violence, Mental Health and Resisting Abjection in Camilla Gibb's Mouthing the Words and Elizabeth Ruth's Ten Good Seconds of Silence by Susan Billingham		96
Pt. III		The Protest of Silence
8		Testimony and Silence: Sexual Violence and the Holocaust by Zoe Waxman		117
9		'Mum Is the Word': Gender Violence, Displacement and the Refugee Camp in Yasmin Ladha's Documentary-Fiction by Belen Martin-Lucas		130
10		Double Violation? (Not) Talking about Sexual Violence in Contemporary South Asia by Ananya Jahanara Kabir		146
11		Questioning Truth and Reconciliation: Writing Rape in Achmat Dangor's Bitter Fruit and Kagiso Lesego Molope's Dancing in the Dust by Sorcha Gunne		164
Pt. IV		The Question of the Visual
12		Signifying Rape: Problems of Representing Sexual Violence on Stage by Lisa Fitzpatrick		183
13		The Wound and the Mask: Rape, Recovery and Poetry in Pascale Petit's The Wounded Deer: Fourteen Poems after Frida Kahlo by Zoe Brigley Thompson		200
		More...

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