{"title":"受害者的性别化:暴行文学中的女性","authors":"S. Lin","doi":"10.1215/10679847-2009-008","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This essay examines the current state of Taiwanese culture through the project of restoration of history, focusing on a corpus of literary works that represent Taiwan's 2/28 Incident and its aftermath, the White Terror. Post–martial law Taiwan witnessed the birthing of a new nation with burgeoning writings of a new historiography, particularly in the literary field. Writers have re-created scenes and the effects of atrocity in order to fill in the gaps in history as a new Taiwan is being written into existence. In this body of literature, women as victims have clearly been considered the most powerful trope to convey a sense of injustice. By situating my analysis in the larger context of third-world women and their changing roles vis-a-vis tradition during national crises, I argue that the definition of victimhood is, in fact, never readily transparent, and hence equivocal portrayals of women as victims not only constitute a sign of an evolving understanding of Taiwanese history but become a crucial narrative device that helps to avoid the pitfall of trivialization.","PeriodicalId":131234,"journal":{"name":"Positions-east Asia Cultures Critique","volume":"1865 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2009-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Engendering Victimhood: Women in Literature of Atrocity\",\"authors\":\"S. Lin\",\"doi\":\"10.1215/10679847-2009-008\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"This essay examines the current state of Taiwanese culture through the project of restoration of history, focusing on a corpus of literary works that represent Taiwan's 2/28 Incident and its aftermath, the White Terror. Post–martial law Taiwan witnessed the birthing of a new nation with burgeoning writings of a new historiography, particularly in the literary field. Writers have re-created scenes and the effects of atrocity in order to fill in the gaps in history as a new Taiwan is being written into existence. In this body of literature, women as victims have clearly been considered the most powerful trope to convey a sense of injustice. By situating my analysis in the larger context of third-world women and their changing roles vis-a-vis tradition during national crises, I argue that the definition of victimhood is, in fact, never readily transparent, and hence equivocal portrayals of women as victims not only constitute a sign of an evolving understanding of Taiwanese history but become a crucial narrative device that helps to avoid the pitfall of trivialization.\",\"PeriodicalId\":131234,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Positions-east Asia Cultures Critique\",\"volume\":\"1865 1\",\"pages\":\"0\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.0000,\"publicationDate\":\"2009-05-01\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"1\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Positions-east Asia Cultures Critique\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-2009-008\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"\",\"JCRName\":\"\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Positions-east Asia Cultures Critique","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-2009-008","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
Engendering Victimhood: Women in Literature of Atrocity
This essay examines the current state of Taiwanese culture through the project of restoration of history, focusing on a corpus of literary works that represent Taiwan's 2/28 Incident and its aftermath, the White Terror. Post–martial law Taiwan witnessed the birthing of a new nation with burgeoning writings of a new historiography, particularly in the literary field. Writers have re-created scenes and the effects of atrocity in order to fill in the gaps in history as a new Taiwan is being written into existence. In this body of literature, women as victims have clearly been considered the most powerful trope to convey a sense of injustice. By situating my analysis in the larger context of third-world women and their changing roles vis-a-vis tradition during national crises, I argue that the definition of victimhood is, in fact, never readily transparent, and hence equivocal portrayals of women as victims not only constitute a sign of an evolving understanding of Taiwanese history but become a crucial narrative device that helps to avoid the pitfall of trivialization.