Work

Wartime Rape in Boudica by Tristan Bernays

Year: 2026

Type: article

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.

Source: Ideas: journal of english literary studies.

DOI: 10.62352/ideas.1835951

Authors: Florentina Gümüş, Yeliz Biber Vangölü

Institutions: Artvin Coruh University, Atatürk University

Language: English

Topic: Gender, Security, and Conflict

Subfield: Gender Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: diamond

OpenAlex ID: W7160778234

FWCI:

Cites: 6

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