Representing Gender-Based Violence: Literature, Performance and Activism in the Anglophone Caribbean

世界卫生组织2013年的一项研究发现，在全球范围内，35%的女性经历过亲密伴侣暴力或性侵犯，全球南方的低收入到中等收入国家受到的影响不成比例。由世界卫生组织和联合国提出的全球公共卫生危机，GBV在加勒比海英语国家尤为普遍，这些国家的强奸和杀害女性的报告比率位居世界前列。恐同和跨性别暴力也被视为该区域一个紧迫的人权问题。尽管近年来在讲英语的加勒比地区推出了专门打击基于性别的暴力的政府方案，但它仍然是该区域的一个关键问题。对基于性别的暴力的研究主要以社会科学为基础，最近已从侧重于个人的战略，如为受害者发展支助服务、加强妇女的安全和与肇事者合作，转向更广泛地关注产生基于性别的暴力的社会文化背景和结构性不平等。已有相应的政策转向初级预防(一种旨在预防GBV发生的方法)，2015年，联合国呼吁在全球范围内增加初级预防方案。尽管目前GBV的研究、激进主义和政策都强调GBV的文化背景以及“文化变革”的必要性，但关于文学和文化生产如何反映支撑GBV的规范和态度，或其批评这些规范、改变态度和产生变化的潜力，目前还没有持续的学术工作。此外，关于性别性别的研究主要集中在全球北方妇女的经历上，该项目将通过分析21世纪加勒比文学和表演文化塑造、加强或抵制性别性别的主导观点和叙述的复杂方式来解决这些差距。牙买加舞厅文化的性别动态正在发生变化，这一流派曾与厌女症和同性恋恐惧症联系在一起。此外，由非政府组织领导的一项试点研究发现，一批新出现的挑战性别角色和规范的女艺术家创作的soa歌曲，特立尼达蓬勃发展的口语运动，它在处理性暴力、亲密伴侣暴力、恐同暴力和有毒男性等问题方面开辟了新的天地，以及不断扩大的加勒比小说、戏剧和诗歌语料库，批评地接触到了性别暴力的主题。研究还发现，越来越多的加勒比海作家和音乐家在现场活动和社交媒体上参与关于GBV的公开辩论。该项目将调查这些审美形式作为对抗GBV的激进主义场所的使用，同时也产生新的创造性工作。该项目团队将与作家、口语诗人、舞厅艺术家和表演艺术集体合作，通过以下举措吸引年轻人参与反GBV运动：1)一个小说和诗歌委员会，面向该地区30岁以下的作家；在特立尼达的三所学校举办为期五周的系列讲习班，60名13-17岁的学生将观看、讨论和表演口语剧，并制作自己的剧本；在牙买加的三所学校举办了为期五周的系列讲习班，60名13-17岁的学生将创作、表演和录制舞厅歌曲，这些歌曲将被整理成一个开放获取的数字档案馆。产出将包括一本小说和诗歌选集、带有导言的带注释的口头游戏共同点版本、笔记和综合促进指南、关于GBV教育的表演艺术方法的工具包、期刊特刊和期刊文章。这项研究将使直接参与的中学生、合作组织和创意实践者以及区域内外更广泛的公众受益，他们将有机会接触到该项目的现场、印刷和数字成果。

A 2013 World Health Organisation study found that globally, 35% of women have experienced intimate partner violence or sexual assault, and low to middle income countries of the global South are disproportionately affected. Presented by the WHO and the UN as a global public health crisis, GBV is particularly pervasive in Anglophone Caribbean countries, which have some of the highest rates of reported rape and feminicide in the world. Homophobic and transphobic violence is also regarded as an urgent human rights issue in the region. Despite the launch, in recent years, of government programmes in the Anglophone Caribbean dedicated to combatting GBV, it remains a critical issue in the region. Research on GBV, which is mainly social science based, has recently shifted from strategies which focus on individuals, such as developing support services for victims, enhancing women's safety and working with perpetrators, to a broader focus on the sociocultural contexts and structural inequalities which generate GBV. There has been a corresponding policy shift towards primary prevention (an approach which aims to prevent GBV before it occurs), and in 2015 the UN called for an increase in primary prevention programmes globally. Despite the current emphasis in GBV research, activism and policy on the cultural contexts of GBV and the need for a 'culture change', there is no sustained scholarly work on how literary and cultural production reflects the norms and attitudes which underpin GBV, or on its potential to critique those norms, transform attitudes, and generate change. Additionally, research on GBV has focused primarily on the experiences of women in the global North.The project will address these gaps by analysing the complex ways in which twenty-first century Caribbean literary and performance cultures shape, reinforce or resist dominant perspectives on and narratives of GBV. The gender dynamics of Jamaican dancehall culture, a genre once associated with misogyny and homophobia, are changing. Moreover, a pilot study led by the PI identified an emerging body of soca songs by female artists which are challenging gender roles and norms, a thriving spoken word movement in Trinidad which is breaking new ground in its treatment of issues such as sexual violence, intimate partner violence, homophobic violence and toxic masculinities, and an expanding corpus of Caribbean fiction, drama and poetry which critically engages with the topic of GBV. The study also found that increasing numbers of Caribbean writers and musicians are participating in public debate on GBV both at live events and via social media. The project will investigate the use of these aesthetic forms as sites of activism against GBV, while also generating new creative work. Working with writers, spoken word poets, dancehall artists and performing arts collectives, the project team will engage young people in anti-GBV activism through the following initiatives: 1.) a fiction and poetry commission targeted at writers under 30 from across the region; 2.) a five-week workshop series in three schools in Trinidad where 60 students aged 13-17 will watch, discuss and perform a spoken word play and produce their own scripts; 3.) a five-week workshop series in three schools in Jamaica where 60 students aged 13-17 will write, perform and record dancehall songs, which will be collated into an open access digital archive. Outputs will include a fiction and poetry anthology, an annotated edition of the spoken word play Common Grounds with an introduction, notes and an integrated facilitation guide, a toolkit on performing arts approaches to GBV education, a journal special issue, and journal articles. The research will benefit the secondary school students who are directly involved, the collaborating organisations and creative practitioners, and the wider public within and beyond the region who will have access to the project's live, print and digital outputs.