Public Rape: Representing Violation in Fiction and Film (Sussex Studies in Culture and Communication) Book

Second-wave feminism's mission was to end the blanket silence shrouding rape and bring it to public attention. Now feminist critics must confront a different issue. InPublic Rape: Representing Violation in Fiction and Film Tanya Horeck considers the public investment in images of rape and the figure of the raped woman. Introducing the idea of "public rape", Horeck looks at how images of rape - from news stories to Hollywood films and popular fiction - serve as cultural fantasies of sexual, racial and class difference. Public Rape argues that the concept of fantasy, while much maligned in traditional feminist writing on sexual violence, is the key to understanding the investment in narratives of rape. sustained investigation of the representation of rape in a Topics addressed include the use of rape as an origin story in the work of classic feminist writers such as Susan Brownmiller and Marilyn French; the infamous New Bedford "Big Dan's" gang rape case; rape in films such as The Accused, Strange Days, Boys Don't Cry and Raw Deal: A Question of Consent; and the controversy surrounding Sarah Dunant's feminist sex thriller Transgressions. Horeck takes an interdisciplinary approach that works between the fields of gender, film, and cultural studies to reveal how representations of rape raise vital questions about the relationship between reality and fantasy, and between violence and spectacle.Read More