Download or read book Beyond Breaking the Silence: Race, Gender, and Survivor Subjectivities in Feminist Rape Narratives by Contemporary American Women of Color written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rape in the United States is hugely problematic, with current studies estimating that "one out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime" (RAINN). Unfortunately, very few historical or contemporary rape narratives examine rape as a social phenomenon, allow the victims to voice their experiences, or see breaking the silence as a first, and not a final, step towards challenging the occurrence of sexual violence. Of the feminist rape literature that does accomplish this, I examine the novels Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison (1992), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969), Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García (1992) and Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee (1989). Collectively these books represent a contemporary challenge to current ignorance about rape.