The Weaponization of Rape in Times of War: Power and the Gendered Body in Pat Barker’s The Women of Troy (2021)

This chapter examines how rape is weaponized in times of war, with a specific focus on Pat Barker’s The Women of Troy (2021). Set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, the novel reimagines Homer’s The Iliad from the perspective of women left behind in a devastated city. While the original epic glorifies conquest and male heroism, Barker shifts attention to the experiences of enslaved women such as Briseis and Helen, highlighting how sexual violence, forced marriage, and reproductive control function as tools of domination. Drawing on feminist theory, legal studies, and historical scholarship on slavery, this chapter explores the intersection of gender, power, and captivity in both ancient and contemporary contexts. Central to this analysis is the absence of a universally applicable definition of slavery, and how literature fills the gaps where international law fails to account for complex experiences of exploitation. Through interdisciplinary references, including works by Michel Foucault, Catherine A. MacKinnon, and Sara Meger, the discussion connects literary representation with real-world practices of systemic violence against women in camps, conflict zones, and border spaces. Barker’s novel is read as a form of resistance that makes visible the long-term trauma of rape, and the enduring structures that continue to govern women’s bodies in both myth and modernity.