Between Trauma and Resilience

Abstract

This article discusses the personal narratives (both published and personal interviews collected for the purpose of this study) of female survivors of wartime rape in post–World War II Germany and postconflict Bosnia and Herzegovina. The authors examine how the women succeed in finding their words both for and beyond the rupture caused by the rapes through examples of life writing that challenge the dominant masculinist historical narrative of war created for ideological reasons and for the benefit of the nation-state. Using theories of trauma and insights by feminist scholars and historians, the authors argue that a transnational reading of survivors’ accounts from these very different geopolitical and historical contexts not only shows multiple points of mutual influence, but also how these narratives can make a significant contribution, both locally and globally, when it comes to revisiting how wartime rape is memorialized, and how lessons learned from the two contexts can be relevant and applicable in other situations of armed conflict as well.

Strategies, Symbols, and Subjectivities: The Continuities between War Rape and Lesbo-Phobic Rape

“…However, through many of their life stories, we also see examples of extreme resilience and renewed senses of self and belonging. Schwartz and Takševa (2020, 131) explain that an important act for reclaiming agency for women raped in war, specifically Bosnian women, has been the opportunity to testify at the ICTY hearings. Schwartz and Takševa explain that the hearings afforded survivors the opportunity to rupture “the silence that historically surrounds the wartime rape of women,” and so “also contributes to unmasking rape mythologies and victim blaming.…”

“…Schwartz and Takševa explain that the hearings afforded survivors the opportunity to rupture “the silence that historically surrounds the wartime rape of women,” and so “also contributes to unmasking rape mythologies and victim blaming. Speaking out means using their voices to denounce the crimes they suffered and to participate actively in the creation of the politics of memory” (2020, 131). The ability to participate in this tribunal, to face their perpetrators, and to contribute to a narrative that centered on rape survivors’ experiences and voices assisted these survivors to gain a renewed sense of subjectivity and agency.…”

“…The ability to participate in this tribunal, to face their perpetrators, and to contribute to a narrative that centered on rape survivors’ experiences and voices assisted these survivors to gain a renewed sense of subjectivity and agency. Schwartz and Takševa (2020, 131) further state that: Women's agency and resilience is manifested paradoxically through their willingness to name and narrate the experience of their utmost victimization and dehumanization that stripped them at the time of their ability for self-direction and choice, which is the basis of agency. Agency and victimization thus emerge as two sides of their experience of trauma.…”