German #MeToo: Rape Cultures and Resistance, 1770-2020

This collection of essays examines German literature and culture in the context of the international #MeToo movement, highlighting the persistence of rape cultures and the need to hold perpetrators accountable. It explores themes such as rape, prostitution, sexual murder, consent, and victim-blaming through literary works, visual arts, graphic novels, film, television, and theater. The analysis of rape myths is also a central focus, challenging narratives of sex-based discrimination and emphasizing resistance and the importance of telling one's own story.

Format: Hardback
Length: 422 pages
Publication date: 19 July 2022
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

This collection of fresh essays represents a collaborative, academic, and activist endeavor to understand German literature and culture within the framework of the global #MeToo movement, illuminating and challenging the ways that rape cultures persist. In response to the widespread influence of the #MeToo movement, this volume explores not only the prevalence of sexual abuse and violence but also the historical and transnational failure to hold perpetrators accountable. Drawing from a diverse range of disciplines, the collected essays engage with current cultural and political discourses on systemic sexism, feminist theory and practice, and gender-based discrimination from an academic and activist perspective. The focus on national cultures of German-speaking Europe from the mid-eighteenth century to the present highlights the persistence of normalized and institutionalized sexism, reimagined through the lens of a contemporary political and social movement.

German #MeToo contends that sexual violence is not a universal human constant but rather is nurtured and sustained by the social, political, cultural, legal, and economic fabric of specific societies. The authors explore various #MeToo-related issues through the examination of rape, prostitution, sexual murder, the politics of consent, and victim-blaming as enacted in literary works by canonical and marginalized authors, the visual arts, the graphic novel, film, television, and theater. The analysis of rape myths, which are discourses and practices in German history and culture that undermine and excuse sexual violence, is a central theme of this edited volume. Throughout, German #MeToo challenges narratives of sex-based discrimination while emphasizing the strategies of resistance and the importance of sharing one's own story.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781640141353