Between Men: Towards a Theory of Eighteenth‐Century Rape Culture

Abstract This article offers two case studies to begin theorizing eighteenth‐century ‘rape culture’ for historians and literary scholars. We compare the behaviours of two men, Francis Charteris and Samuel Pepys, both of whom left considerable testimonial archives suggesting that they were, at least by modern standards, perpetrators of rape. We observe that archival evidence tracking these individuals' actions reveals how eighteenth‐century culture normalized some forms of rape while punishing others. Our argument concludes with the insight that the relationship between an individual incident and a culture's general notions about rape is commensurate, mutually imbricated, and lends itself to analysis by scholars.