Sexual Violence in History: A Bibliography

»Thordis' most well known book, South of Forgiveness, is a memoir about her sexual assault and subsequent journey to healing and freedom in which Thordis collaborated with her perpetrator, making her the first rape survivor in the world to publicly do so. In 1996, Tom Stranger, aged 18, was offered to do a year-long student exchange program in Iceland where he met 16-year-old Thordis Elva at a theater club in the school they both attended. They began dating and had been in a relationship for over a month prior to the sexual assault taking place. Stranger took Thordis Elva home on the night of a school Christmas dance where she had become intoxicated by alcohol. Stranger then raped her in her home. He ended their relationship two days after the assault and returned to Australia when his exchange program was completed. Thordis Elva didn't press charges, explaining that she was "a 16-year-old kid with a head full of misconceptions ... I didn’t put two and two together and realize what I had been through was actually rape," on the Australian talk show Q&A in 2017.
Nine years after the assault, Thordis Elva, suffering from emotional trauma from the event, confronted Stranger in an email and he responded with a forthright confession. After 8 years of communicating via email, they arranged to meet in Cape Town, South Africa for a period of one week to "face their past, once and for all", discussing the impact of Tom's violent actions on both of their lives, for him to take full responsibility for it and for both of them to heal. In the months after returning home, they co-authored South of Forgiveness. Their aim was to contribute their story to the global dialogue about sexual violence, perpetrator responsibility and the importance of consent.« (Extract from: Wikipedia)

K e y w o r d s

I. Chronological Index: Modern History: 20^th Century

II. Geographical Index: European History: Icelandic History

III. Topical Index: Cases: Real Offenders: Tom Stranger; Real Victims: Thordis Elva; Types: General: Rape; Circumstances: Drug-facilitated Sexual Assault

B i b l i o g r a p h y

Primary Sources

[Info] Elva, Thordis, et al. Handan fyrirgefningar: Sönn saga. Reykjavík 2017.

[Info] Elva, Thordis, et al. Ich will dir in die Augen sehen: Eine Frau trifft den Mann, der sie vergewaltigt hat. Munich 2017.

[Info] Elva, Thordis, et al. På andra sidan förlåtelsen: En sann historia. Stockholm 2017.

[Info] Elva, Thordis, et al. South of Forgiveness. Melbourne 2017.

Secondary Sources

[Info] Fernández-Morales, Marta. Rape Narratives that Paved the Way for #MeToo: The Crack in the Wall. New York 2025.