A Philosophical Investigation of Rape: The Making and Unmaking of the Feminine Self

ISBN: 9780415990295

Routledge, 15 April 2009

Hardcover, 243–256 pages

A Philosophical Investigation of Rape: The Making and Unmaking of the Feminine Self examines the phenomenon of rape using a feminist philosophical discourse concerning women’s or ‘feminine’ subjectivity and selfhood. The book provides a critique of the dominant understanding of rape and its associated damage, and suggests alternatives. This book offers a critical feminist perspective on the widely debated topic of transitional justice and forgiveness. Louise du Toit demonstrates how the hierarchical dichotomy of male active versus female passive sexuality – which obscures the true nature of rape – is embedded in the dominant Western symbolic frame. Through a Hegelian and phenomenological reading of first-person accounts by rape victims, she develops an understanding that opens up a way out of the denial and destruction of female sexual subjectivity.