From Fritzl to #metoo

Alessia Tranchese is Senior Lecturer in Communication and Applied Linguistics at the University of Portsmouth, UK. Her research interests include the representation of violence against women in the media, online misogyny, and corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis.

“This book has made me much more alert to the biased language used by the media’s reporting on male violence against women. Even those who already possess excellent media literacy and whose feminist lens is clear will learn much from this book and likely develop clearer vision for deep and critical reading of the news.” (Emma Dalton, Revista de Lenguas para fines específicos, Vol. 30, 2024)“Fritzl to #metoo is definitely an important contribution to feminist research and engagement with sexual violence. It offers a nuanced and constructive approach to #metoo beyond the dichotomy of its achievements versus failures. ... Tranchese critically explores the broad sociopolitical context in which #metoo emerged and was disseminated. She highlights the potentialities of #metoo and its interconnections with broader feminist initiatives and agendas ... .” (Júlia Garraio, European Journal of Women’s Studies, Vol. 30 (4), November, 2023)

• Part 1: Introduction and context.- Chapter 1: Rape: beyond definitions, misconceptions and myths.- Chapter 2: Incidence of rape in the UK.- Chapter 3: British quality press.- Chapter 4: From Fritzl to Weinstein.- Part 2: Theory and Method.- Chapter 5: Theoretical background.- Chapter 6: Corpus building and analysis.- Part 3: The Discourse of Rape.- Chapter 7: Rape and other crimes.- Chapter 8: Rape and ideology in newspapers.- Chapter 9: Who is the rapist?.- Part 4: From Fritzl to Weinstein: Shifting Discourses.- Chapter 10: Consistencies and inconsistencies.- Chapter 11: Rape trials.- Part 5: Conclusion.- Chapter 12: Reflecting upon methodology.- Chapter 13: Concluding remarks.