When doing a syntactic analysis of “I was raped”, the receiver has to look and listen to the statement again and again. The sound of the words turns into a picture and the picture becomes a fact that we cannot turn ourselves away from or ignore. “Voldtægtens Grammatik” is an experimental documentary and performance project that explores how to validate your own version of a traumatic event through grammatical analysis. This is based in what the societal discourse around rape sound like today. Are you as the accused innocent until proven guilty, and are you as the offended a liar until proven right? Without naming the offender and/or the offended, the film retells rape traumas through syntactic analysis. The purpose of this is to create a kind of distance so that you as a narrator are able to convey your story without overexposing yourself to your own trauma, but also so that you as a listener are not automatically withdrawn as a result of exposure to an evil experience.
I started working with Voldtægtens Grammatik in the autumn of 2019, and I actually wished to continue with it throughout 2021 as my bachelors project. Because of the pandemic I had to pause it in the winter of 2020. I made a experimental video out of the data I had collected so far and I had it shown in the Film From The North Short Film Programme at Tromsø International Film Festival, january 2021.
The project explores how to validate your own version of a traumatic event through grammatical analysis. This is based in what the societal discourse around rape sound like today. Are you as the accused innocent until proven guilty, and are you as the offended a liar until proven right? Without naming the offender and/or the offended, the film retells rape traumas through syntactic analysis. The purpose of this is to create a kind of distance so that you as a narrator are able to convey your story without overexposing yourself to your own trauma, but also so that you as a listener are not automatically withdrawn as a result of exposure to an evil experience.
I will continue exploring our language about rape.
