Affected by Rape presents an affective approach to researching sexual violence, exploring how rape affects and how affects are implicated in the process of researching rape. With a methodological focus, this book develops nuanced insights into womxn’s experiences of rape in South Africa.

Drawing on intersectional decolonial, African-centred, and feminist perspectives, it analyses how dominant understandings of sexual violence, constituted by intersecting inequalities, constrain womxn’s feelings about their experiences of rape. Weaving together autoethnography, in-depth interviewing and affective reflexivity, the book demonstrates how an affective approach can enrich understandings of and responses to sexual violence. The book shows how womxn resist, refuse and subvert dominant affective responses to rape, cultivating care, connection and solidarity in the face of denial, dismissal and dehumanisation. While situated in South Africa, the book speaks to global concerns about sexual and gender-based violence, as well as the politics of knowledge production in contexts of inequality.

This book provides tools for working with affects as both epistemic and ethical resources for knowledge production. It will be valuable for researchers of sexual and gender-based violence, feminist and decolonial scholars, and those working on difficult, sensitive or stigmatised research topics.