Gender-based Violence in Contemporary European Literatures: Representations, Subversions, Counter-narratives
In recent years, transnational movements such as #MeToo and feminist mobilizations have contributed to the development of a new social awareness of the multiple forms of oppression and violence affecting women and feminized subjects who are positioned in a condition of subordination within the binary system that upholds the patriarchal order. In this context, notions such as abuse, harassment, rape and consent have become central political categories, shaping a perspective that diverges from traditional legal interpretations of these phenomena. Indeed, they introduce new ways of naming, denouncing and condemning gender-based violence, while promoting social programmes aimed at protecting and empowering oppressed people. Public debate on gender-based violence has undergone a profound transformation, bringing experiences long confined to private life into the collective sphere. As Rita Segato shows in La guerra contra las mujeres (2016), patriarchal structures continue to reproduce themselves through symbolic and material mechanisms rooted in family and social life, while the growing visibility of testimonies of abuse reveals their persistent forms of normalization. At the same time, public attention has shed light on the limitations of institutional and legal responses, which are often unable to guarantee protection, justice and reparation….