Context for HMT Flashcards
Donald Trump has
In Londoners,protestors put on the clock and Bonnet to protest against Donald trumps visit to the U.K. and policies of his administration
Atwood on the uniform
‘Adopted by women in many countries as a symbol of protest’
Ireland
Catholic country
Women wore it
To lift abortion ban
‘No one can accuse of them of being immodest… but everyone…knows what they mean
Protestor—> ‘the bonnet makes you feel very vulnerable because your hearing is cut off
‘Nobody likes abortion’
Helen Lewis
Writing a book about feminism
‘Costumes works so well… where the protests is happening…places dominated by men in Black or navy suits’
Book of Genesis
Invoked as precedent
‘When Leah was she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife’
What inspired Atwood for cloaks in THMT
Afghanistan women
I won’t put anything in the book that hasn’t already happened
Transrealism
Specific combination of real and fantastic
Relevant for contemporary readers
Why dystopian has risen since eg Donald trump winning
The American New right
1980s
Time right wing fundamentalist groups became w significant political force in America
Right wing Christians
Against abortion, rise of divorce and growth of gay rights
Support for new right strong in south east and central area of county knowncas Bible Belt
Who could be commanders wife based on
Phyllis Schlafly
Tammy Faye Bakker
Puritan New England
Her interest in Puritan New England relates to her own ancestry
Mary Webster witch her ancestor but survived
‘The mindset of Gilead is really close to that of the seventeenth century Puritans’- conversations
K.Kaler- in New England Puritan women assigned names like silence and fear and be fruitful
Not allowed combs or mirrors - clothes have to be functioning
Utopian ideals
As Atwood points out- puritans aspired to utopian society - the system was oppressive , theocratic and patriarchy
New England novelist - Hawthorne says first this Puritan New England built was a prison and second was gallows to hang dissenters
Harvard
1983
Collection of essays called
“The New Right at Harvard”
Could partially explain why Atwood chose Harvard uni as heart of gilead
Puritan attitudes
Atwood uni teacher
Professor Miller historians work has details used in nocel like Puritan preachers
Reference to women as ‘handmaids of lord’
Gathering of women during labour as witnesses to a birth
1960s women liberation movement
Like offered mother
Burn porn mAgazin
3 handmaid characters
Janine- accepts it
Radical lesbian seperist feminist Moria
Offered contemporary feminism
Real place flashback
July 4th
Massachusetts Avenue
Makes it all v real
Phyllis schlaffly
1977
Authored 9 books
Clearly very educated and gives many speeches and so her view for women to stay at home is ironic
Oppress selves
Like serena
Raising kids is God’s gift
Not equal pay
Sexual harassment barely happens to good women in
1960s
Civil rights movement
Publication of feminine mystique sparked second wave of feminist
1960s shorter dresses
1970s
1972 TItle 4- attacked sexism in education
Ron v Wade abortion legal
Newton’s law - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction- eg non conformers
1980s
Reagon era
Growth of fundamentalism - Falwell
- target news and non Christians to conservative Christianity
Thatcher
Anti feminist
Why America
Was going to do Canada but not Canadian thing to do - more watered down
Adam and Eve
Adam not deceived but woman was
She shall be saved by child bearing
Virgin Mary
Wives
Don’t have sex but have kids
Jezebel
Queen of Israel who tempted men into lust - Bible
Atwood on religion
‘If I could I would limit the hunger for God to Personal Reime where it would not be used to bash others’
God changed the way he appears
Bradley and sPok
Men telling women how to have kids
Context of the wall
Berlin Wall constructed 1961- cut off West Berlin from east Germany until 1989
In novel - wall used to stop people from escaping
Context of the dead bodies on wall
1969 U.K. abolish death penalty
Abortion law
Roe v Wade 1973
