SavedAdd your journal

Journals / IDEAS: İngilizce Edebi Araştırmalar Dergisi / 2026 / Cilt: 6 Sayı: 1

Wartime Rape in Boudica by Tristan Bernays

Tristan Bernays’in Boudica'sında Savaş Zamanı Tecavüz

Florentina Gümüş(ARTVİN ÇORUH ÜNİVERSİTESİ)0000-0002-3327-0221
Yeliz Biber Vangölü(Atatürk University)0000-0002-2117-7812
Pages
14–27
Publication Date
2026-05-10
🏛️Bibliographic metadata and full text access for this article are provided via DergiPark.
DergiPark Record ↗
✨

AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

Boudica thus complicates narratives of warrior heroism and illuminates the contradictory experiences of women in wartime.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:Framed within Susan Brownmiller’s commentary on rape as a weapon of war and related sociological scholarship, this article examines Tristan Bernays’s Boudica (2017) to interrogate the implications of women who fight in wars.
📊
Key Findings & Data:The play focuses on the warrior-queen Boudica, who stands out as a rare instance of female military command, leading the Iceni revolt alongside her daughters.
💡
Conclusion & Impact:Boudica thus complicates narratives of warrior heroism and illuminates the contradictory experiences of women in wartime.
🔬Design:Araştırma Makalesi
📍Scope:2017 Verileri
⚙️Variables:Boudica · Susan Brownmiller · Tiyatro

Abstract

Framed within Susan Brownmiller’s commentary on rape as a weapon of war and related sociological scholarship, this article examines Tristan Bernays’s Boudica (2017) to interrogate the implications of women who fight in wars. The play focuses on the warrior-queen Boudica, who stands out as a rare instance of female military command, leading the Iceni revolt alongside her daughters. However, this exceptional leader position does not prevent Boudica and her daughters from assault and gang rape by Roman soldiers, demonstrating that martial agency offers no immunity from gendered violence. Moreover, their dependence on male-led tribal armies reveals the structural constraints of female authority within patriarchal warrior cultures. Boudica thus complicates narratives of warrior heroism and illuminates the contradictory experiences of women in wartime.

Özet

Susan Brownmiller’ın bir savaş silahı olarak tecavüz hakkındaki görüşleri ve ilgili sosyolojik çalışmalar çerçevesinde bu makale, kadınların savaşlarda savaşçı olarak yer almasının anlam örüntülerini sorgulamak üzere Tristan Bernays’in Boudica (2017) adlı eserini incelemektedir. Oyun, kızlarıyla birlikte Iceni isyanına liderlik eden nadir bir kadın askeri komutan olarak öne çıkan savaşçı kraliçe Boudica’yı ele almaktadır. Ancak bu istisnai liderlik konumu, Boudica ve kızlarını Romalı askerler tarafından saldırı ve toplu tecavüze uğramaktan alıkoymaz ve askeri inisiyatifin cinsiyete dayalı şiddete karşı hiçbir bağışıklık sağlamadığını ortaya koyar. Dahası, erkek liderliğindeki kabile ordularına bağımlılıkları, ataerkil savaşçı kültürlerde kadın otoritesinin yapısal kısıtlamalarını da gözler önüne serer. Böylece Boudica, savaşçı kahramanlık anlatılarını karmaşık hale getirerek savaş zamanında kadınların çelişkili deneyimlerine ışık tutar.

🔖

Cite This Article

Gümüş, F., Vangölü, Y. B. (2026). Wartime Rape in Boudica by Tristan Bernays. IDEAS: İngilizce Edebi Araştırmalar Dergisi, Cilt: 6 Sayı: 1, 14–27. https://doi.org/10.62352/ideas.1835951

📄 Full Text PDF Viewer

📄

PDF görüntüleyici hazırlanıyor...

References (14)

  1. Baaz, Maria Eriksson, and Maria Stern. “Why Do Soldiers Rape? Masculinity, Violence, and Sexuality in the Armed Forces in the Congo (DRC).” International Studies Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 2, 2009, pp. 495–518. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2478.2009.00543.x.
  2. Bernays, Tristan. Boudica. Nick Hern Books, 2017. Drama Online, http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781784604455.00000003.
  3. Brownmiller, Susan. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. Ballantine Books, 1975.
  4. Cockburn, Cynthia. The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict. Zed Books, 1998.
  5. Cohn, Carol. “Women and Wars: Toward a Conceptual Framework.” Women and Wars, edited by Cohn, Polity Press, 2013, pp. 1–35.
  6. Cohen, Dara Kay. “Explaining Rape During Civil War: Cross-National Evidence (1980–2009).” American Political Science Review, vol. 107, no. 3, 2013, pp. 461–477.
  7. Ensler, Eve. The Vagina Monologues. Virago, 1998.
  8. Lambert, Tonya Marie. “Gang Rape.” Encyclopedia of Rape, edited by Merril D. Smith, Greenwood Press, 2004, pp. 86–87.
  9. Linehan, Mary. “Comfort Women.” Encyclopedia of Rape, edited by Merril D. Smith, Greenwood Press, 2004, pp. 46–48.
  10. Lord, Albert B. “Homer, the Trojan War, and History.” Journal of the Folklore Institute, vol. 8, no. 2/3, 1971, pp. 85–92.
  11. Skinner, Eric. “Bosnia-Herzegovina.” Encyclopedia of Rape, edited by Merril D. Smith, Greenwood Press, 2004, pp. 28–29.
  12. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader, edited by Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, Columbia University Press, 1988, pp. 66–111.
  13. Thomas, Dorothy Q., and Regan E. Ralph. “Rape in War: Challenging the Tradition of Impunity.” SAIS Review, vol. 14, no. 1, 1994, pp. 81–99. doi:10.1353/sais.1994.0019.
  14. Wood, Elisabeth Jean. “Rape as a Practice of War: Toward a Typology of Political Violence.” Politics & Society, vol. 46, no. 4, 2018, pp. 513–537. doi:10.1177/0032329218773710.