Rape politics in adolescent fiction

Feminist critics have argued that rape prevention discourse can be complicit in perpetuating rape culture, because the focus on women's behaviour sidelines an interrogation of the causes of rape. This thesis examines the representation of rape in adolescent fiction, particularly the prevalence of rape scripts that conform to this dynamic. The thesis offers a comparative examination of two novels which exclude the rapist, What happens next and All the truth that's in me, and two which include the rapist, You against me and The mockingbirds. An examination of the political differences between confession and the feminist practice of speaking out demonstrates how victims' voices can be tools of either self-empowerment or institutional control. Central to my discussion is an analysis of how novels construct "rape spaces", or spaces into which a rapist's agency is relocated to suggest that they contribute to rape. Applying this theory to both public spaces and female bodies, I suggest that without an appropriate outlet for blame, these are presented as dangerous for females. The thesis determines that excluding the rapist character pathologises victims and creates rape spaces, while including him allows blame to be appropriately assigned and the causes of rape to be interrogated.