This article analyses selected literary representations of the intersections of gender, violence and the dynamics of shaming female bodies and women’s sexuality to demonstrate how discursive and epistemological constructions of gender create an environment where gender violence becomes the norm rather than an aberration. I seek to unpack how selected authors represent the ways in which seemingly harmless assumptions about women’s bodies and sexualities form part of a much larger, insidious and profoundly misogynist system of gendered power inequalities. The analysis suggests that this is a social system in which all women are both vulnerable and acutely aware of their gendered vulnerability to violence. The primary texts that I will analyse are Period Pain (2016) by Kopano Matlwa and Broken Basket (2016) by Francine Mann. Both these novels represent how female characters, albeit ones who are differently situated, negotiate their lives against a backdrop of repeated references to the shame that is vested in their bodies and sexualities and how they must ultimately deal with the progression of violence from a discursive to a physical reality.

中文翻译：

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暴力和对女性身体和女性性行为的性别羞辱：南非女性作家小说选编的女权主义文学分析

本文分析了性别、暴力以及羞辱女性身体和女性性行为的交叉点的精选文学表现，以展示性别的话语和认识论结构如何创造一种环境，使性别暴力成为常态而不是异常。我试图解开被选中的作者如何表现关于女性身体和性行为的看似无害的假设构成更大、阴险和深刻的性别权力不平等系统的一部分。分析表明，这是一个社会体系，在这个体系中，所有女性都很脆弱，并且敏锐地意识到她们在遭受暴力时的性别脆弱性。我将分析的主要文本是 Kopano Matlwa 的 Period Pain (2016) 和 Francine Mann 的 Broken Basket (2016)。