Second-wave feminism's mission was to end the blanket silence shrouding rape and bring it to public attention. Now feminist critics must confront a different issue. In Public Rape Tanya Horeck considers the public investment in images of rape and the figure of the raped woman. Introducing the idea of public rape, Horeck looks at how images of rape serve as cultural fantasies of sexual, racial and class difference. Looking at rape in real life as well as in literature and films such as The Accused and Boys Don't Cry, Horek reveals how representations of rape raise vital questions about the...

Second-wave feminism fought to end the blanket silence shrouding rape and bring it to public attention. Now feminist critics must confront a different issue. In Public Rape Tanya Horeck considers the public investment in images of rape and the figure of the raped woman. Introducing the idea of 'public rape', Horeck looks at how images of rape serve as cultural fantasies of sexual, racial and class difference. Looking at rape in real life as well as in literature and films such as The Accused and Boys Don't Cry, Horek reveals how representations of rape raise vital...

Explosive images of sex and violence in films by directors such as Catherine Breillat, Gaspar Noe, Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier have attracted media attention for the ways in which they seek to shock and provoke the spectator into powerful affective and visceral responses. This first collection of essays devoted to the new extremism in contemporary European cinema critically interrogates this highly contentious body of work and demonstrates that these films and the controversies they engender are indispensable to the critical task of rethinking the terms of spectatorship. Through...