Constructing rape, imagining self : discourses of rape and gender subjectivity in South Africa

This thesis explores the meanings and impact of rape in South Africa for fifteen women located at the University of Cape Town (UCT) who claim to have never experienced rape. Drawing upon feminist post-structuralist theories of subjectivity and taking a discursive analytic approach, the thesis explores how these women construct the phenomenon of rape in their society and thereby imagine themselves. It is based upon empirical data collected through qualitative interviews. Analysis of this data shows that the women discursively construct rape as highly prevalent in South Africa but ordinarily distant from their personal lives, concerning then 'the Other.' However, it is argued that the women also construct themselves as gendered and embodied subjects inherently vulnerable to male violence such as rape. This means that the fear and imagination of rape are not absent from their daily lives, but rather shape their sense of safety, agency, sexuality and citizenship in South Africa. Because these fifteen women deny personal experiences of rape, the thesis shows that they draw on public discourses and their subjective imaginations to theorise rape and rape crisis in post-apartheid South Africa.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Gender Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Dosekun, Simidele

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8906

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8906