Double Wound: Writing (Nepali) Women, Sexual Violence and Trauma

As understanding of sexual violence, and the language used to describe it, shifts, there is a corresponding need to reconceptualise the ethics of writing sexual violence and trauma. Feminist theorists highlight how representing sexual violence also risks creating voyeuristic spectacles of eroticism, violence and victimisation. Re-writing sexual violence on the page can create a 'double violation' (Kabir, 2010). By combining the critical and creative approach through an essay and a short story collection, my research explores this question: as writers bearing witness to women's experiences of sexual violence and trauma, how do we contend with the double violation and write ethically?

To achieve this, I will conduct a comparative analysis of contemporary texts by Yara Rodrigues Fowler, Emma Glass, Meena Kandasamy, and Carmen Maria Machado. Using their work as case studies, I will examine the effect of literary techniques, seek out ethical ways of representing sexual violence, and apply them in my own writing. My project will focus on three strands: a) writing an ethical language of the body; b) writing trauma through textual silence and mundanity; c) using metafiction and metatextuality to articulate sexual violence. I intend to use frameworks such as Jean-Charles' 'victim-survivor narrative' which highlight the significance of racial and cultural identity in negotiations of trauma.

My objective is to advance current discussions of sexual violence in feminist theory, trauma studies and literary theory; to ethically represent the multiplicity of women's experience with sexual violence and trauma; and to centre immigrant/diasporic Nepali women in my creative practice, responding to a gap in Western literature and expanding understanding of the link between marginalisations and experiences of trauma. This research is crucial if we are to move towards more ethical ways of discussing and writing sexual violence in both literature and wider socio-cultural contexts.