239890 Reading Hurt - Rape as Literary Trope (S) (WiSe 2012/2013)

"I contend throughout that no act against another is more devastating than rape (sexual violence); no act is more impossible to think, read, write than rape." (Victor J. Vitanza)
Like trauma narratives, accounts of rape test the boundaries of language and linguistic representation. The physical and mental atrocities and their aftermath often seem impossible to put into words, and yet, rape and sexual violence are established tropes in Western thought and writing.
In this class, we will interrogate sexual violence and its multiple disturbing functions and diverse employments of these in literary texts.

Literaturangaben

The required reading will be announced in due course.