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y separately published work icon Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing multi chapter work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This book is the first to examine gender and violence in Australian literature. It argues that literary texts by Australian women writers offer unique ways of understanding the social problem of gendered violence, bringing this often private and suppressed issue into the public sphere. It draws on the international field of violence studies to investigate how Australian women writers challenge the victim paradigm and figure women's agencies. In doing so, it provides a theoretical context for the increasing number of contemporary literary works by Australian women writers that directly address gendered violence, an issue that has taken on urgent social and political currency.

'By analysing Australian women's literary representations of gendered violence, this book rethinks victimhood and agency, particularly from a feminist perspective. One of its major innovations is that it examines mainstream Australian women's writing alongside that of Indigenous and minoritised women. In doing so it provides insights into the interconnectedness of Australia's diverse settler, Indigenous and diasporic histories in chapters that examine intimate partner violence, violence against Indigenous women and girls, family violence and violence against children, and the war and political violence.' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Table of Contents : Introduction Chapter 1: Intimate Violation: Gothic and Romance Chapter 2: Aboriginal Women's Protest Poetry Chapter 3: Lethal Families: Family violence and violence against children Chapter 4: Terror: War and related violent conflicts

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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Works about this Work

Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women’s Writing Mark Piccini , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 46 no. 4 2022; (p. 542-543)
— Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Anne Brewster , Sue Kossew , 2019 multi chapter work criticism

'As the world watches the horrifying spectacle of Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and confronts the possibility of a third world war, we find ourselves entangled in what Slavoj Žižek in his book Violence: Six Sideways Reflections has called “the fascinating lure of … directly visible ‘subjective’ violence, violence performed by a clearly identifiable agent”. Anne Brewster and Sue Kossew’s book, Rethinking the Victim: Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women’s Writing, is particularly timely because it directs our attention to the everyday, intimate violence that befalls women and children, as represented in Australian literature. Brewster and Kossew note “the linking of intersubjective and intimate violence with global violence” (229) in contemporary discussions of gendered violence. The searing accounts of such violence that they unearth in Australian women’s literature, particularly in the work of Indigenous and minoritised women writers, reveals something symptomatic of the machismo that fuels the violence of strongmen such as Putin.' (Introduction)
[Review] Rethinking the Victim: Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women’s Writing Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , vol. 58 no. 3 2022; (p. 422-423)
— Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Anne Brewster , Sue Kossew , 2019 multi chapter work criticism

'Rethinking the Victim is a passionate and scholarly study that provides the first comprehensive investigation into representations of violence in contemporary Australian women’s writing. It is not only stimulated by a pressing social problem increasingly debated in public, but also responds to an increasing number of literary texts by Australian women writers who address gendered violence in their works. As a result, it opens up a new field of research, taking an innovative approach to existing material by focusing mostly on novels, poems, short stories, and life-histories published during the past ten years.' (Introduction)
Anne Brewster and Sue Kossew, Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Delys Bird , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 21 no. 1 2021;
— Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Anne Brewster , Sue Kossew , 2019 multi chapter work criticism 'Published in the Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures Series with the assistance of an ARC Discovery Grant, Rethinking the Victim situates itself in the troubled context of violence against women, a broad field which includes family violence as well as many other forms. The authors refer to a range of major Reports, both international and Australian, into violence against women in all its manifestations, which detail horrifying statistics about its prevalence. In turn, that work recognises such violence as a human rights issue, with ‘widespread social, economic and political impact and effects.’ Anne Brewster and Sue Kossew also link increased contemporary attention to this field with the rise of feminist activism and theory in the 1970s, which brought the issue, particularly of domestic violence, from the private into the public sphere.' (Introduction)
Rev. of Anne Brewster and Sue Kossew, Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women’s Writing Barbara Arizti Martin , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies of Australia , vol. 11 no. 2 2020;
— Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Anne Brewster , Sue Kossew , 2019 multi chapter work criticism
Sophie Baggott Reviews Rethinking the Victim by Anne Brewster and Sue Kossew Sophie Baggott , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , August no. 25 2020;
— Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Anne Brewster , Sue Kossew , 2019 multi chapter work criticism

'First of all, I owe readers a disclosure: if this book is an interrogation of power asymmetry and its potential to foster violence, then it’s disquieting that both its authors and reviewer embody a white middle-class lens on experiences largely rooted in less privileged positions across society.' (Introduction) 
Sophie Baggott Reviews Rethinking the Victim by Anne Brewster and Sue Kossew Sophie Baggott , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , August no. 25 2020;
— Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Anne Brewster , Sue Kossew , 2019 multi chapter work criticism

'First of all, I owe readers a disclosure: if this book is an interrogation of power asymmetry and its potential to foster violence, then it’s disquieting that both its authors and reviewer embody a white middle-class lens on experiences largely rooted in less privileged positions across society.' (Introduction) 
Rev. of Anne Brewster and Sue Kossew, Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women’s Writing Barbara Arizti Martin , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies of Australia , vol. 11 no. 2 2020;
— Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Anne Brewster , Sue Kossew , 2019 multi chapter work criticism
Anne Brewster and Sue Kossew, Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Delys Bird , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 21 no. 1 2021;
— Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Anne Brewster , Sue Kossew , 2019 multi chapter work criticism 'Published in the Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures Series with the assistance of an ARC Discovery Grant, Rethinking the Victim situates itself in the troubled context of violence against women, a broad field which includes family violence as well as many other forms. The authors refer to a range of major Reports, both international and Australian, into violence against women in all its manifestations, which detail horrifying statistics about its prevalence. In turn, that work recognises such violence as a human rights issue, with ‘widespread social, economic and political impact and effects.’ Anne Brewster and Sue Kossew also link increased contemporary attention to this field with the rise of feminist activism and theory in the 1970s, which brought the issue, particularly of domestic violence, from the private into the public sphere.' (Introduction)
[Review] Rethinking the Victim: Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women’s Writing Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , vol. 58 no. 3 2022; (p. 422-423)
— Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Anne Brewster , Sue Kossew , 2019 multi chapter work criticism

'Rethinking the Victim is a passionate and scholarly study that provides the first comprehensive investigation into representations of violence in contemporary Australian women’s writing. It is not only stimulated by a pressing social problem increasingly debated in public, but also responds to an increasing number of literary texts by Australian women writers who address gendered violence in their works. As a result, it opens up a new field of research, taking an innovative approach to existing material by focusing mostly on novels, poems, short stories, and life-histories published during the past ten years.' (Introduction)
Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women’s Writing Mark Piccini , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 46 no. 4 2022; (p. 542-543)
— Review of Rethinking the Victim : Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women's Writing Anne Brewster , Sue Kossew , 2019 multi chapter work criticism

'As the world watches the horrifying spectacle of Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and confronts the possibility of a third world war, we find ourselves entangled in what Slavoj Žižek in his book Violence: Six Sideways Reflections has called “the fascinating lure of … directly visible ‘subjective’ violence, violence performed by a clearly identifiable agent”. Anne Brewster and Sue Kossew’s book, Rethinking the Victim: Gender and Violence in Contemporary Australian Women’s Writing, is particularly timely because it directs our attention to the everyday, intimate violence that befalls women and children, as represented in Australian literature. Brewster and Kossew note “the linking of intersubjective and intimate violence with global violence” (229) in contemporary discussions of gendered violence. The searing accounts of such violence that they unearth in Australian women’s literature, particularly in the work of Indigenous and minoritised women writers, reveals something symptomatic of the machismo that fuels the violence of strongmen such as Putin.' (Introduction)
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Last amended 3 Sep 2020 12:34:05
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