Berättelser om sexuellt våld i feministisk forskning

Abstract

This article deals with feminist research on narratives of sexual violence. The selection of research for the discussion rests on two themes. One is about the problematic distinction between victim and perpetrator and the other about discourses based on the distinction between us and them. On an individual level there is always a victim but on a structural level the victim and perpetrator need to be contextualised and disconnected from normative understandings in order to grasp the full complexity of power and resistance. The article demonstrates, by examples from different genres, that our understanding of sexual violence is dependent on historical discourses. Narratives of sexual violence can, since they are dependent on historical discourses, stage the social contradictions which they in fact themselves are part of. Rape discourses might therefore be overdetermined by racism and nationalism. Narratives of experiences of sexual violence consequently rely on available discourses. A historical perspective reveals what was possible to articulate in a certain time and a certain place, how experiences differ and how subjectivity changes.