Speaking of Rape

Speaking of Rape: The Limitations of Language in Sexual Trauma analyses the effects of linguistic inadequacies in matters of sexual harm, and how the limitations of our current vocabulary reinforce injustice.

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Speaking of Rape: The Limits of Language in Sexual Violations analyses the effects of linguistic inadequacies in matters of sexual harm, and how the limitations of our current vocabulary reinforce injustice.

Rape survivors need speech to recover—to tell the story of their harm, to rebuild their sense of self and their place in the world. But the words available to them often fail to describe their experience of the violation, which isolates and silences them, enables future perpetration, and lets rape remain unacknowledged. Tumminio Hansen steps into this space of the seemingly unspeakable and responds to the linguistic crisis by offering fresh ways of speaking and listening that reframe how we can describe, discuss, and address rape. Bravely weaving first-person narrative with the wisdom of psychologists, philosophers, theologians, and restorative justice experts, Speaking of Rape revolutionizes our ways of understanding the scope and nature of sexual violations in order to revolutionize how we respond to them.

This is an important and unique intervention suitable for Women’s Studies scholars engaging with debates about sexual violence and trauma.