Author: Christine Künzel, Institut für Germanistik, Universität Hamburg

Abstract: »In her novel It Happens All the Time, Amy Hatvany presents an alternative revenge scenario to a rape victim’s bloody vendetta. The protagonist chooses a more subtle form of revenge that aims less at a physical injury or the death of the rapist but is rather based on the idea of transferring her experience of injury to the perpetrator in a kind of mimetic re-enactment. In this case, revenge is practised via a psychological and social educational process involving the (once best friend) perpetrator. The novel ties in with current debates about alternative discourses criticizing the legal system and reflects on various possibilities in order to gain justice. Although playing with and undermining rape myths in general, the novel partly reproduces stereotypes about rape victims and perpetrators.« (Source: Article)

Contents:

	Abstract (p. 87)
	Introduction (p. 87)
	Amy Hatvany’s novel It Happens All the Time (2017) (p. 91)
	Revenge via Education (p. 92)
	References to Heinrich von Kleist’s The Marquise of O– (p. 96)
	Resumé and Critique (p. 97)
	Bibliography (p. 99)

Wikipedia: History of the Americas: History of the United States | Literature: American literature / Amy Hatvany | Sex and the law: Rape / Rape in the United States