IMAGINING WAR RAPE GEOGRAPHIES: VIOLENT CARTOGRAPHY OR CARTOGRAPHY OF VIOLENCE?

In the context of global social, political, economic and cultural interactions, wartime violence against women is publicly addressed in a framework of international (power) relations and (re)actions. An important shift in discourse on this topic was identifying and recognizing wartime rape as a weapon of war, rather than a by-product of conflict. Additionally, representations of this particular form of violence in the global public sphere have multiplied and diversified. In this context, identities and power relations are constantly (re)produced, (re)framed and (re)positioned through discourse, while imaginary (b)orders are being drawn. Space is being identified through rape, which gives it meaning and situates it on the map. The following analysis illustrates the ambivalent and problematic consequences of presenting and representing the rape of women during wartime in relation to processes of imagining/identifying places. It does so by critically engaging representations of wartime rape in the Congo. Eventually, the article unveils a problematic discursive terrain where mapping rape in order to address it can indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, fuel a culturally violent social cartography and the production of imaginative rape geographies.