“Nobody Can Be Vulgar All Alone”: The Power of Shame in Broadchurch

Through positing shame as inherent in women’s sexual development, this article explores the screen representations of sexually abused female survivors/victims by focusing especially on the articulation of their selfhood. It interrogates the representation of rape narratives in the television series Broadchurch (Amazon 2017) by focusing primarily on the visual culture and visual texts as social texts. Using an intersectional perspective informed by such disciplines as feminism, film and television studies, body politics, trauma studies, and psychology, it also intends to prepare women to be media critical and question the effects of the heavy penetration of popular culture into their lives. The notion of selfhood developed in this article emphasizes embodiment, agency, conscience, and the inextricable relationship between self and other. (AF)