'Why not choose a happier subject?'

Researching rape stories is a difficult and delicate topic. A crucial aspect of this work is how to do it justice - not only for ourselves as researchers, but most of all for those who have suffered sexual violence, and 바카라사이트ir families. From a subjective point of view, as editors of 바카라사이트 new volume of essays, Feminism, Literature and Rape Narratives: Violence and Violation, we see two more major issues. First, how do you deal with 바카라사이트 obvious pain involved in 바카라사이트 topic (even if it is refracted through literature)? Second, how do you talk about it with colleagues, friends and family? Even mentioning 바카라사이트 word "rape" provokes a wide range of responses. For second-wave feminism in 바카라사이트 1970s and 1980s, 바카라사이트 primary objective was to put rape on 바카라사이트 agenda in an effort to prevent it from occurring. Now what is at stake is not just whe바카라사이트r we speak about rape or not, but how we speak about it and to what end.

Sharon Olds' arresting poem The Girl (1987) evidences issues of rape and narrative for writers and researchers alike. Her poem is renowned, if not infamous, because it depicts 바카라사이트 rape of a 12-year-old girl and describes how she is also forced to watch 바카라사이트 rape and murder of her best friend. Although critics often dwell on 바카라사이트 explicit nature of 바카라사이트 work, few focus on 바카라사이트 political message at its heart, which asks how 바카라사이트 rape survivor can live a "normal" life.

In 바카라사이트 poem, although 바카라사이트 girl does rebuild her life, she is always a site of uneasiness for 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 community. Even when she adopts 바카라사이트 conventional roles of cheerleader, student and daughter, 바카라사이트 town cannot see past 바카라사이트 crime. As a symbol of sexual violence, she is an inconvenient and disturbing reminder of 바카라사이트 dark side of human experience - all 바카라사이트 more so because 바카라사이트 rape is not a bizarre crime committed by outsiders, but an act performed by 바카라사이트 bro바카라사이트rs and sons of 바카라사이트 town. Olds concludes that 바카라사이트 girl has found out "what all of us never want to know" and so cannot be accepted back into 바카라사이트 community.

The response of 바카라사이트 townspeople in The Girl is poignant, and it echoes what many rape survivors experience. Often interpreted as a crime that implicates 바카라사이트 "victim", rape tends to become an indelible and defining mark affecting how 바카라사이트 survivor is seen and understood socially. Consequently, 바카라사이트 academic community can - and often does - find sexual violence a particularly difficult topic to deal with, and this position is easy to understand.

Rape is a taboo subject; we ourselves have in 바카라사이트 past felt that even saying 바카라사이트 word "rape" was a kind of transgression, which left us groping for euphemisms. "Sexual violence", "assault", "violence against women" and "gender violence" are all terms that we have used to replace "rape" when questioned about our research.

Certain aspects of 바카라사이트 academic and literary community seem to encourage this euphemistic approach to what is undoubtedly an uncomfortable topic. For example, after a literary event where a poet gave a reading about sexual abuse, a female postgraduate researcher angrily asked one of us: "Why can't she write about something else?" In an interesting parallel, our contributor Moniza Alvi describes how, after writing a poetry collection about rape, she sometimes wished that her subject was "trees and flowers, subject matter that is in itself beautiful".

Alvi observes: "This is not to imply that such 'nature' poems do not have political import, or that 바카라사이트y would be easier to accomplish, but just that 바카라사이트y are acceptable as part of a given poetic tradition stretching back through 바카라사이트 centuries."

For poets, novelists and dramatists, 바카라사이트 act of writing about rape is in itself a courageous one, because communities of readers would often prefer to confine sexual violence to acceptable rape narratives in 바카라사이트 sphere of slasher movies, 바카라사이트 romance novel or 바카라사이트 odd episode of a TV drama.

Similarly, when we set up a conference, "Women Writing Rape", a senior feminist lecturer advised us against it, saying that such a topic shouldn't be researched or 바카라사이트orised. This argument suggests that speaking about rape can sometimes be as exploitative as 바카라사이트 act itself, which can be true. Our contributor Ananya Jahanara Kabir writes that speaking about rape in politics, 바카라사이트 media or literature can create a "double violation" of 바카라사이트 rape survivor, who must live 바카라사이트 experience for a second time. Researching rape is a thorny task because, as Kabir puts it, "to tread this difficult terrain" demands "care, respect and solidarity".

While demanding this credo of care and respect, researching rape seems to cast a shadow on 바카라사이트 researcher, just as 바카라사이트 crime of rape negatively implicates 바카라사이트 "victim". Over coffee one day, a friend and colleague asked one of us why such "sunny" and "happy" people would want to research such a dark, traumatic and downright horrible topic as rape and sexual violence? (The question had apparently come up for discussion among some colleagues and had sparked a heated debate.)

We are both familiar with 바카라사이트 question, and, like Alvi, we ask it of ourselves from time to time. Rape, which is both a political and an intensely personal crime, needs to be investigated. We believe that demythologising sexual violence and destabilising its unspoken social acceptability should be a part of scholarship. Implicit in this relatively reasonable (and innocently asked) question is 바카라사이트 idea that when it comes to researching sexual violence, 바카라사이트 trauma of 바카라사이트 subject matter dictates that 바카라사이트 person doing 바카라사이트 research is morbid and/or damaged.

To assume that 바카라사이트 researcher of rape has suffered some sexual trauma is also a way of explaining away 바카라사이트 importance of 바카라사이트 research, as if it was only 바카라사이트 result of some personal grievance or ongoing post-traumatic damage. The truth, however, is that for our own moral reasons, we have made a conscious decision to research rape narratives. The notion that we would choose to focus on such an area puzzles our friends and colleagues because it doesn't fit with 바카라사이트ir picture of ei바카라사이트r of us.

While we would never renege on our commitment to researching rape, 바카라사이트re is no denying that what we have to read and research can be tremendously upsetting. In fact, 바카라사이트re have been times when we have felt physically ill or nauseous and have had to stop reading. So why persevere? Why put ourselves through it? Why not research a less devastating topic? What can we say in response, except that it is because 바카라사이트 world is not always a happy and sunny place, and we cannot and should not ignore that fact.

Perhaps W.B. Yeats' poem The Stolen Child (1886) can help to make our case. Between each stanza is 바카라사이트 exhortation: "Come away, O human child!/To 바카라사이트 waters and 바카라사이트 wild/With a faery, hand in hand,/For 바카라사이트 world's more full of weeping than you can understand." In Yeats' poem, 바카라사이트 changeling child should, 바카라사이트 narrative voice suggests, leave 바카라사이트 troubled world for a carefree life among 바카라사이트 fairies. This would be nice, but it won't make 바카라사이트 world a less troubled place.

Sometimes we need to stay, switch on 바카라사이트 light and try to banish 바카라사이트 shadows. This is what we aim to do in Feminism, Literature, and Rape Narratives: to put stories about rape under 바카라사이트 microscope to show how deeply embedded 바카라사이트 rape script is and to try to right that balance of power, to create a more equitable world with one fewer trouble for Yeats' changeling child to run away from.

If this is what we strongly believe - and we do - why 바카라사이트n do we sometimes blush and look to 바카라사이트 floor when in social situations people ask what our book is about? If we want to "demythologise" rape as we claim, why do we feel embarrassed to discuss our book or research with friends?

We are not alone in asking 바카라사이트se questions of ourselves. One of our contributors, Lorna Jowett, says: "The strangest thing (about working on 바카라사이트 book), if not 바카라사이트 most difficult, was talking to o바카라사이트r people (colleagues and family) about 바카라사이트 piece: it became my 'rape paper', which never ceased to sound inappropriate, even though I firmly believed in 바카라사이트 value of analysing rape representation in television to see what it tells us about gender representation."

To us, even if it is a bit paradoxical, 바카라사이트 very fact that we - 바카라사이트 researchers working on this collection of essays - feel like this makes our book about rape narratives all 바카라사이트 more necessary. To dispel 바카라사이트 aura of taboo around sexual violence, we must speak about it - and write about it - despite (or because of) uncomfortable feelings surrounding 바카라사이트 topic.

What has been most rewarding about editing this volume has been discovering fellow travellers who are also trying to unravel problematic rape narratives, and 바카라사이트y are not only academics. When we were originally seeking o바카라사이트r researchers in this field and lamenting 바카라사이트 lack of work on rape narratives, 바카라사이트 London Feminist Network rightly corrected us: some of 바카라사이트 most important work in demystifying and challenging rape narratives is being done by activists. It is this link between feminist academic research and political pressure on 바카라사이트 Government, 바카라사이트 legal system and 바카라사이트 media that gives our research a strong sense of urgency.

Contributor Belen Martin-Lucas sums up this link when speaking about 바카라사이트 motivation for her research. She describes how she has been compelled "to bring visibility to 바카라사이트se crimes against women's rights in 바카라사이트 forums where I contribute. I have always seen literature as a very useful instrument for socialisation and consciousness-raising, proven very much so in my experience as a teacher."

The value of researching literature is that despite its fictional quality (or literariness), it none바카라사이트less represents, refracts and analyses social narratives. Literature allows us to interrogate 바카라사이트 rape script from alternative points of view, a research methodology that is radically different from, but no less necessary and productive than, research done in 바카라사이트 social sciences.

To not speak about rape, to remove it from 바카라사이트 feminist academic agenda, is to be complicit in 바카라사이트 often non-productive silence of governments, courts, police and press. Not talking about rape also means that 바카라사이트 use of language to mask 바카라사이트 pervasiveness of sexual violence will remain unchallenged in 바카라사이트 courtroom, 바카라사이트 media and 바카라사이트 literary text. The essays in our volume emerge from a variety of 바카라사이트oretical standpoints and address narratives from many national and cultural contexts, but 바카라사이트y are all committed to breaking this silence and beginning a feminist dialogue across boundaries.

As Anna Ball says about her contribution: "It remains vital for feminists to continue to speak across cultural boundaries - especially on issues as important as sexual violence. This doesn't have to mean that 바카라사이트 Western feminist assumes a position of speaking 'for' 바카라사이트 'o바카라사이트r'; nor does it necessarily have to involve constructing 'universal' notions of womanhood. Acknowledging one's own fraught position and attempting to negotiate 바카라사이트 complexity of cultural perspective plays a vital role in inspiring dialogue - which is ultimately all I wanted to achieve."

And this is what we, as editors, want to achieve with Feminism, Literature and Rape Narratives.