Semiotics of Rape: Sexual Subjectivity and Violation in Rural India

by Rupal Oza

Overview

In Semiotics of Rape, Rupal Oza follows the social life of rape in rural northwest India to reveal how rape is not only a violation of the body but a language through which a range of issues—including caste and gender hierarchies, control over land and labor, and the shape of justice—are contested. Rather than focus on the laws governing rape, Oza closely examines rape charges to show how the victims and survivors of rape reclaim their autonomy by refusing to see themselves as defined entirely by the act of violation. Oza also shows how rape cases become arenas where bureaucrats, village council members, caste communities, and the police debate women’s sexual subjectivities and how those varied understandings impact the status and reputations of individuals and groups. In this way, rape gains meaning beyond the level of the survivor and victim to create a social category. By tracing the shifting meanings of sexual violence and justice, Oza offers insights into the social significance of rape in India and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478023982
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	11/14/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	494 KB

About the Author

Rupal Oza is Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York, and author of The Making of Neoliberal India: Nationalism, Gender, and the Paradoxes of Globalization.

Table of Contents

Preface  vii
Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction  1
1. Consent  36
2. Compromise  65
3. Land  104
4. Death  130
Conclusion  161
Notes  173
Sources  185
Index

What People are Saying About This

Pratiksha Baxi

“Semiotics of Rape is simply stunning. It is an honest, provocative, and searing ethnography of rape in rural Haryana. In unpacking women’s subjectivities under conditions of violence, it is a powerful exposition of how women’s subjectivities are forged by multiple scripts of rape at different scales ranging from the intimate to the bureaucratic. In doing so, Rupal Oza has unleashed the power of feminist critical geography to analyze the political economy of rape in India.”

Animal Intimacies: Interspecies Relatedness in India’s Central Himalayas - Radhika Govindrajan

“Exploring how rape is entangled with and shapes broader politics of caste, gender, and land, Rupal Oza considers the political, social, and economic antecedents and consequences of sexual violence. Urgent and beautifully written, this important and brilliant book allows us to understand the complex and unexpected ways in which survivors are able to find some measure of agency in contexts of ongoing intimate and structural violence. It will immediately appeal to feminist scholars, anthropologists of South Asia, and scholars of the law and the state, caste, and rural and agrarian studies.”

Editorial Reviews

"The book provides a bold perspective from which to understand sexual violence and deserves serious discussion amongst scholars and activists, as it broadens our understanding of what justice could be."

Asian Journal of Law and Society - Gagan Preet Singh

"Beyond Indian society, this book is a must-read for everyone who seeks to scrutinize institutions which uphold ideals that actively discriminate against specific groups of people on the basis of their cultural and political identities. Additionally, lawyers, activists, and scholars in the field of women’s studies and those actively working to give voice to victims of rape and sexual violence will find the book incredibly useful in understanding the psychology of survivors and the communities in which they reside."

Journal of International Women's Studies - Nikita Puri

"Rupal's book pushes us to look beyond words such as victim and survivor and how the language around sexual violence cases often concretises stereotypes and patriarchal systems. It is a much-needed reminder of how women assert their autonomy and refuse to be defined by violence."

Hindustan Times - Neha Dixit

"This poignant, timely, and urgent discussion of rape and sexual politics in rural India, Oza underscores that Dalit women’s bodies, often marked by the problematic images of vigilante justice, are defined by their sexual subjectivity and are not victims. Instead, they are complex sexual subjects which assert their choices in rape cases. . . . Oza’s monograph, therefore, makes an important contribution to the fields of gender, women’s and sexuality studies, transnational studies, anthropology, and South Asian studies. It will also be helpful for introductory feminist theory graduate courses."

South Asian Review - Nidhi Shrivastava

"Through her compelling and empathetic writing, Oza brings forth the narratives of survivors and allows us to reimagine possibilities of justice in an unequal and stratified society, making this book a significant addition to works on sexual violence, particularly in India. Semiotics of Rape by Rupal Oza does the important work of capturing and documenting perhaps the most important narrative of all—the  voice and subjectivity of the victim/survivor of sexual violence in contemporary India."
 

Crime Media Culture - Sukanya Bhattacharya

"An interesting read for scholars pursuing research on gender/women’s studies, sexuality, and related topics. Policymakers should find this book interesting to sensitise authorities dealing with cases of violence against women."

Asian Studies Review - Rituparna Bhattacharyya

"Rupal's book pushes us to look beyond words such as victim and survivor and how the language around sexual violence cases often concretises stereotypes and patriarchal systems. It is a much-needed reminder of how women assert their autonomy and refuse to be defined by violence."

Hindustan Times - Namita Bhandare

"Semiotics of Rape is a powerful and timely contribution to geography, which will doubtless make a major contribution to geographical subfields and is very likely to travel well beyond geography."

AAG Review of Books - Rhys Machold