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
