Chapter 1 - Autobiography as Feminist Praxis

Summary

Chapter 1 examines autobiographical accounts of rape in Tracey Emin’s Strangeland (2005), Jana Leo’s Rape New York (2009), and Virginie Despentes’s King Kong Theory (2006). Starting with Emin’s naming and shaming of her rapist as feminist praxis, the chapter continues by focusing upon the powerfully political messages about rape and its social significance delivered by Leo and Despentes. The close readings I offer in this chapter demonstrate that what may initially be recognised as factual descriptions of violence are accounts skilfully crafted to deliver maximum intensity, or what I term ‘affective audacity’. This is channelled to persuade the reader to agree with the wider societal arguments they make. The chapter pays considerable attention to the formal and rhetorical structure of what I describe as ‘body-essays’ to argue that Leo and Despentes repurpose their sexual traumas to argue against social inequality, and that all three authors exhibit new audacity in their resistance of victimhood and refusal of silence.