Writing the Survivor: The Rape Novel in Late Twentieth-Century American Fiction

Field, Robin E.

ISBN 10: 1942954832 / ISBN 13: 9781942954835

Published by Clemson University Press w/ LUP, 2020

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 385033654

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Writing the Survivor: The Rape Novel in Late Twentieth-Century American Fiction
• Publisher: Clemson University Press w/ LUP
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1942954832
• ISBN 13: 9781942954835
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Writing the Survivor: The Rape Novel in Late Twentieth-Century American Fiction identifies a new genre of American fiction, the rape novel, that recenters narratives of sexual violence on the survivors of violence and abuse, rather than the perpetrators. The rape novel arose during the women's liberation movement as women writers collectively challenged the traditional erasure of female subjectivity and agency found in earlier representations of sexual violence in American fiction. The rape novel not only foregrounds survivors and their stories in a textual centering that affirms their dignity and self-worth, but also develops new narratological strategies for portraying violent, disturbing subject matter. In bringing together many key women's texts of the last decades of the 20th century, the rape novel demonstrates the centrality of sexual assault to women's fiction of this era. The rape novels of the 21st century continue the political activism inherent in the genre--educating readers, offering community to survivors, and encouraging social activism--as the stories of male survivors are increasingly told. A radical reconsideration of late twentieth-century American novels, Writing the Survivor underscores the importance of women's activism upon the novel's form and content and reveals the portrayal of rape as rape to be an interethnic imperative.

About the Author

Robin E. Field is Professor of English at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She is co-editor of Transforming Diaspora: Communities beyond National Boundaries (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2011) and has authored articles and book chapters on Jhumpa Lahiri, Sandra Cisneros, Alice Walker, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, and Ayad Akhtar. Her research interests include gender, trauma, contemporary literature, and postcolonial studies. She is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and teaching at King's College and the Managing Editor of the journal South Asian Review.