This is the first critical study of feminist practices of 'speaking out' in response to rape. This book argues that feminist anti-rape politics are characterised by a belief in the transformative potential of women's personal narratives of sexual violence. The political mobilisation of these narratives has been an incredibly successful strategy, but one with unresolved ethical questions and political limitations. The book explores both the successes and the unresolved questions through feminist archival materials, published narratives of sexual violence, and mass media and internet sources. It argues that that a rethinking of the role and place of women's stories and the politics of speaking out is vital for a rethinking of feminist politics around sexual violence and key to fresh approaches to combating this violence.

Part I. Speaking Out, Building a Genre

1. Introduction: Break the Silence, End the Violence: The Political Promise of Personal Narratives
2. Speaking Out Beyond Feminism: Public Survivors and Rape Narratives
3. 'A New Literature of Rape': Storytelling, Genre and Subjectivity
4. Speaking Truth to Law's Power: Legal Judgements and the 'Powerful Letter' of Emily Doe
5. #YesAllWomen and Heroic 'Silence Breakers': Online Speech, Collective Stories and the Politics of Belief
Part II.The Politics of Speaking Out
6. Whose Business is Speaking Out? The Bell Debate, Indigenous Stories and the Construction of White Feminist Expertise
7. Turning Rape into Fiction? Judgement, Genre and the Politics of Belief
8. That Which Must Be Broken: Silence and the Politics of Listening
9. Conclusion; Break the Silence, End the Violence? A Politics of Narrative.