The personal and the political in twenty-first-century America: Self- and cultural inquiry in contemporary rape memoirs

Abstract

With a focus on the twenty-first-century United States, this article explores two narratives of sexual violence written by White women: Rape New York by Jana Leo (2009) and Joanna Connors’ I Will Find You (2016). In order to discuss them in relation to the topic proposed, the following research questions are posed: (1) What is the aim of the text? (2) Which methods of composition and narrative are used to achieve that aim? (3) Does the text manifest a political intention? (4) Does that intention align with the current wave of feminism? The thesis sustained here is that these two authors create stories of sexual violence where the personal is political in ways that are relevant to a feminist understanding of contemporary America. I propose that Leo and Connors, writing before #MeToo, can be considered early fourth-wavers. Their approach to the events that they portray is intersectional, and they practice self- and cultural inquiry as part of their process of constructing autobiographical rape narratives.