Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a Self

Susan Brison was attacked from behind, beaten, sexually assaulted, strangled to unconsciousness, and left for dead on July 4, 1990, in southern France. This book explores the undoing and remaking of a self in the aftermath of violence, offering imaginative access to the experience of a rape survivor and a reflective critique of a society in which women routinely fear and suffer sexual violence.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 03 January 2023
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Susan Brison was attacked from behind, severely beaten, sexually assaulted, strangled to unconsciousness, and left for dead on July 4, 1990, while on a morning walk in southern France. She survived, but her world was destroyed. Her training as a philosopher could not help her make sense of things, and many of her fundamental assumptions about the nature of the self and the world it inhabits were shattered.

This bravely and beautifully written book examines the undoing and remaking of a self in the aftermath of violence. It explores, from an interdisciplinary perspective, memory and truth, identity and self, autonomy and community. It offers imaginative access to the experience of a rape survivor as well as a reflective critique of a society in which women routinely fear and suffer sexual violence.

As Brison observes, trauma disrupts memory, severs past from present, and incapacitates the ability to envision a future. Yet, the act of bearing witness, she argues, facilitates recovery by integrating the experience into the survivor's life's story. She also argues for the importance, as well as the hazards, of using first-person narratives in understanding not only trauma, but also larger philosophical questions about what we can know and how we should live.

Dimension: 216 x 140 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691244679