Rape and Representation

Rape does not have to happen. The fact that it does--and in the United States a rape is reported every six minutes--indicates that we live in a rape-prone culture where rape or the threat of rape functions as a tool for enforcing sexual difference and hierarchy. Rape and Representation explores how cultural forms construct and reenforce social attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate sexual violence. The essays proceed from the observation that literature not only reflects but also contributes to what a society believes about itself. Fourteen essays by authors in the fields of English, American and African-American, German, African, Brazilian, Classical, and French literatures and film present a wide range of texts from different historical periods and cultures. Contributors demythologize patriarchal representation in literature and art in order to show how it makes rape seem natural and inevitable. Contributors include: the editors, John J. Winkler, Patricia Klindiest Joplin, Susan Winnett, Ellen Rooney, Coppelia Kahn, Eileen Julien, Marta Peixoto, Kathryn Gravdal, Carla Freccero, Nellie V. McKay, Nancy A. Jones, and Froma I. Zeitlin.
Their work raises pressing--and often difficult--questions for feminist criticism.

About the author

Larry Ceplair holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin and teaches history at Santa Monica College. He has coauthored The Inquisition in Hollywood and authored Under the Shadow of War, published by Columbia University Press.

Product details

• Authors: Lynn Higgins, Lynn A. Higgins
• Assisted by: Lynn Higgins (Editor), Brenda Silver (Editor), Brenda R. Silver (Editor)
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 08.04.1991
• EAN: 9780231072663
• ISBN: 978-0-231-07266-3
• No. of pages: 326
• Series: Gender and Culture Series; Translations from the Oriental; Gender and Culture Series
• Subjects: Guides > Self-help, everyday life > Family; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries