Rape Narratives, Women’s Testimony, and Irish Law in 'Asking for It' and 'Dark Chapter'
Accepted version
Peer-reviewed
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Type
Book chapter
Change log
Authors
Barr, Rebecca Anne https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6193-5959
Abstract
This chapter examines contemporary legal and literary narratives about rape cases in Ireland, focussing on Louise O’Neill’s 'Asking for It' and Winnie Li’s 'Dark Chapter'. By contrasting the two novels, and contextualising both in relation to a national history of ‘structural misogyny’ it highlights the limits and the potential for justice within both law and literature. Despite legal reform and testimony-centred judicial process, the article reveals the continuing power of traditional myths to underwrite legal story-telling and convert rape and other crimes into genres whose conventions exclude the adducing of women’s actual experience.
Description
Title
Rape Narratives, Women’s Testimony, and Irish Law in 'Asking for It' and 'Dark Chapter'
Keywords
Is Part Of
Law and Literature: The Irish Case
Book type
Edited volume
Publisher
Liverpool University Press