What does it mean to #believewomen? popular feminism and survivor narratives

Serisier, Tanya (2022) What does it mean to #believewomen? popular feminism and survivor narratives. In: Dawson, P. and Mäkelä, M. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Narrative Theory. New York, U.S.: Routledge. ISBN 9781003100157. (In Press)

Abstract

The hashtag #BelieveWomen emerged on Twitter in the aftermath of #MeToo and the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation in 2018. I argue that the hashtag can be read as an attempt to counter the historical denial of women’s narratives of sexual violence by restoring the autobiographical pact between a narrator who tells the truth and an audience who believes them. I contest criticisms of the hashtag as promoting unqualified belief and threatening due process to argue instead that an orientation towards belief is a necessary step towards offering survivor narratives a fair hearing and the possibility of a just outcome. Book synopsis: The Routledge Companion to Narrative Theory brings together top scholars in the field to explore the significance of narrative to pressing social, cultural and theoretical issues. How does narrative both inform and limit the way we think today? From conspiracy theories and social media movements to racial politics and climate change future scenarios, the reach is broad. This volume is distinctive for addressing the complicated relations between the interdisciplinary narrative turn in the academy and the contemporary boom of instrumental storytelling in the public sphere. The scholars collected here explore new theories of causality, experientiality, and fictionality, challenge normative modes of storytelling, and offer polemical accounts of narrative fiction, nonfiction, and video games. Drawing upon the latest research in areas from cognitive sciences to complexity theory the volume provides an accessible entry point for those new to the myriad applications of narrative theory, and a point of departure for new scholarship.

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