The right (way) to represent : the emotional politics of remembering mass rape in Germany after 1945
- Submitting institution
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The University of Warwick
- Unit of assessment
- 26 - Modern Languages and Linguistics
- Output identifier
- 12091
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.1177/1077801219869540
- Title of journal
- Violence against Women
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 1522
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 13
- ISSN
- 1077-8012
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- October
- Year of publication
- 2019
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- Yes
- Additional information
- Stone was the conceiver and sole editor of this volume. As the introduction explains, researchers and NGOs increasingly explore links between creative culture and processes of reconciliation, conflict prevention, and remembrance. Wartime rape barely features in this emerging field (“Transitional Justice and the Arts”), a serious omission given the challenges survivors face as they reorient themselves in post-conflict communities in which gender-based violence may persist. Feminist research also underlines the specific dilemmas associated with representing sexual violence artistically. The introduction makes a case for taking cultural studies perspectives as a springboard for considering the successes, limitations, and implications of cultural interventions in the aftermath of wartime rape. This framing enhances the significance of Stone’s contribution on A Woman in Berlin, set in 1945 Berlin; this work helped expand definitions of conflict-related sexual violence. Stone demonstrate how its tone influenced its reception and thus how aesthetic analysis illuminates the conditions under which stories about wartime rape become audible. In concert with the other contributions, the article unravels the value of literary forms of testimony and produces insights directly relevant to creative practitioners with its analysis of how art opens up spaces for empathy, remembrance, and generating more nuanced understandings of sexual violence—and human rights narratives generally. The special issue seeks to demonstrate the relevance and the richness of cultural studies perspectives on the problem of sexual violence in conflict, use cultural works to assess the effectiveness of legal and political processes for confronting wartime rape and its legacy, theorize how creative interventions in conflict zones operate, document examples of effective cultural advocacy and thus provide the theoretical underpinning for future activism. Significant editorial effort ensured that the final articles spoke to the widest possible audience by fostering cross-cultural dialogue between practitioners and scholars from sociology, international relations, and cultural studies.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -