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Reading Contemporary Memoirs of Sexual Assault in the Wake of #MeToo
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- Author / Creator
- Amanda Spallacci
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This thesis examines the cultural memory of sexual assault in the United States. It examines the relationship between selected published texts about sexual assault and the cultural memory of anti-rape activism, focusing on the ways in which the books about rape that were published during the 1970s Women’s Liberation Movement leave material traces of activism that memorialize the white, middle-class feminists who wrote them. Despite women’s greater access to the opportunity to publish memoirs, today, this project considers the ways in which that 1970s discourse continues to determine how publishers present such texts. I study promotional materials used to market five memoirs of sexual assault, published between 2014-2017 that, I argue ensure that white authors who advance relatively liberal politics become part of the cultural memory of mainstream feminist activism. Conversely, Black authors who posit intersectional and radical politics are excluded from it. While the mechanisms and politics of publishing sexual assault memoirs are significant, the sexual assault narratives that appear within these memoirs present nuanced representations of sexual assault. The form of memoir lets survivors weave their narrative of sexual assault through their life memories; this form allows survivors to reveal their relationship to sexual assault, personal identity, and the broader cultural memory of sexual assault in the United States.
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2021
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.