Handmaids Context Flashcards
1
Q
FB skinner- operant conditioning
A
- behaviour is shaped through reinforcement
- repetitive chanting can act as a form of operant conditioning, where the continuous repetition of phrases, beliefs, or behaviors becomes ingrained, making individuals more compliant.
- over time people begin to associate this chant with relief and social acceptance
- we see this in the salvaging, the ceremony, the boredom of the days, and in the gym with the aunts- showing how repetition slowly breaks down the handmaids’ resistance, making them more compliant and passive within Gilead’s rigid structure.
2
Q
Nazi germany and Jewish police
A
- Jewish police recruited in Nazi Germany to subdue their fellow people to preserve their own lives
- this links to how the aunts are complicit in the oppression of women and reinforce the patriarchy through internalisation.
3
Q
Kristeva’s abjection
A
- a feeling of disgust towards something we need but do not wish to achnowlege. Particularly with the breakdown of boundaries between self and other, body and identity.
- Offred’s body especially her reproductive system–has become something that defines her, but also something she feels alienated from
- “I sink down into my body as into a swamp’ ‘Treacherous ground’ ‘Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object,’
4
Q
Leon Festinger- cognitive dissonance
A
- mental discomfort of holding two or more opposing beliefs.
- handmaids like Offred struggle with cognitive dissonance when they are
forced to accept roles and beliefs that
conflict with their former identities and
morals. - we see this throigh offreds phsycological conflict when she remembers her past life whilst outwardly conforming to the regime
- source: Leon Festinger’s
seminal work, “A Theory of Cognitive
Dissonance” (1957), explores how
humans rationalize and adapt to uncomfortable contradictions.
5
Q
Foucault’s Theory of Power
and Panopticism
A
- panopticism- panopticon-a design of control where people self-
regulate because they believe they are always being watched. - gilead is a panoptic society, where
citizens, especially women, regulate
their own behavior due to the pervasive
threat of surveillance by the Eyes, the
Aunts. Foucault’s notion of
the internalization of surveillance reflects the psychological control the regime exerts over its citizens. - It forces them to self-censor and
internalize the regime’s oppressive
values. - Study/Source: Foucault’s “Discipline
and Punish” (1975) presents the idea
of panopticism
6
Q
Stockholm syndrome
A
- Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response where captives develop emotional bonds with their captors as a survival mechanism.
- Offred’s complicated feelings toward the Commander, who is both her oppressor and the person who grants her small privileges, reflect this syndrome.
- ”| ought to feel hatred for this
man… What | feel is more complicated
than that. I don’t know what to call it. It
isn’t love.” - The term “Stockholm Syndrome” was first coined after a 1973 hostage situation in Sweden and has been explored in studies on captivity, trauma bonding, and survival strategies.
7
Q
What is extriture femenine
A
- a concept
introduced by French feminist theorists like Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray - a type of writing that breaks free from patriarchal language structures and expresses female experience and
subjectivity in a more fluid, bodily, and non-linear way.
8
Q
Offreds bodily experience as écriture femenine
A
- cixous feels women’s writing must
emerge from the body, resisting patriarchal structures that havesilenced female voices. - Écriture féminine emphasizes fluidity,
emotional richness, and an intimate connection to the body and the feminine experience.
-we see this as: Offred’s body is both her refuge and a site of oppression, a theme that écriture féminine addresses
by reclaiming the female body as a powerful source of expression. She also expressed her body as fluid and undefined throigj metaphors. Offred’s narration highlights
her bodily sensations and her intimate relationship with her physical self, even as she is dehumanized - source: Hélène Cixous’s essay
The Laugh of the Medusa outlines how
female writing must come from the
body
9
Q
Offreds non- linear narrative as extriture femenine
A
- cixous Écriture féminine often resists the conventional, linear, and rational structure of writing associated with patriarchal logic. This form of
writing often disrupts traditional narrative structures, allowing female
voices to emerge in a more authentic,
way true to the cyclical narrative of the female ezperience. - we see this when: Offred’s narrative is non- linear, shifting between the
present and her memories of the time
before Gilead. This fragmented structure reflects écriture féminine’s resistance to rigid, linear storytelling and offreds resistence to the autocratic patriarchal Gilead - for example: her memories of her
daughter and life with Luke intrude into her present thoughts, creating a fluid
narrative that mirrors the disiointed
and fragmented way she experiences
her identity and repels thee linear way she is expected to act - source: Luce Irigaray’s works,
such as This Sex Which Is Not One
(1977), advocate for forms of expression that break free fromlinearity and embrace the multiplicity of female experiences.
10
Q
Offreds écriture femenine language used for resistence
A
- For Cixous and Irigaray, écriture féminine is also about reclaiming language from its patriarchal constraints. Women must invent new ways of writing and speaking to express their unique experiences, since traditional language has been designed to marginalize them.
-Offred’s internal
monologues often use sensory, bodily
language to describe her reality in
ways that resist the sterile,
dehumanizing vocabulary imposed by
Gilead such as biblical verses and rigid definitions of women. - Study/Source: Cixous in The Laugh of
the Medusa emphasizes that women
must reclaim and transform language
in order to express themselves freely.
11
Q
What was happening politically in the 80s when Attwood wrote this
A
- rise of the televangelist Christian far right
- presidency of Ronald Reagan
- increasing pressure to roll back the
advances made by the women’s rights
movements of the 1960s and 1970s. - crested worry that women’s rights were being taken for granted and diminished
12
Q
Evangelical Christians in the 80s
A
- Jerry Falwell, a televangelist with a large national following, founded the Moral Majority in response to what he saw as the moral decay of American society.
- they worked the shift the taboo of Christian involvement in politics, feelinh they had a duty to influence and mobilise the Christian right against liberty
- sim to gilead: The group was staunchly anti-abortion, advocating for the reversal of Roe v. Wade, They were strongly opposed to the feminist movement’s push for gender equality under the law, the group supported Reagan’s policies of military buildup and opposition to the Soviet Union.
- concerningly, they helped elect Reagan in 1980 as he championed many of their causes and appointed conservatives to the Supreme Court. They used grassroots mobilisation, creating networks of churches, local organizations, and activists who worked to get out the vote, raise funds, and influence public opinion.
- impact: Its activism helped create the highly charged political atmosphere surrounding issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, battles that continue to this day. its influence lived on through other Christian Right organizations, such as Focus on the Family and the Christian Coalition, which continued to push for conservative Christian values in public policy, as well as still being impactful for the republicans politics.
13
Q
Judith butlers concept of gender performity
A
- source: her seminal work Gender Trouble (1990)
- gender is not something we are, but something we do — a series of actions, behaviors, and performances that create the illusion of a stable gender identity. In contrast, performativity refers to the way actions constitute identity. We perform gender unconsciously and continually, and it is through these performances that the idea of gender appears to be “natural.”
-This challenges the essentialist view that links gender directly to biological sex, suggesting instead that the body is not a passive recipient of gender, but an active site where gender is created and reinforced. - in handmaids tsle: Offred is reduced to the role of a Handmaid and a vessel of reproduction, with her identity and desires tightly controlled by the state. This reflects feminist concerns about how societies can construct and regulate gender roles to maintain male dominance,
14
Q
Adrienne Rich’s Of Woman Born
A
- whilst she hugeky recognises the importance of the bond of notherhood, Rich critiques the institution of motherhood, which she argues is shaped and controlled by patriarchal society. In this sense, motherhood is not just a personal experience but a social and political construct that limits women’s autonomy.
- she hugeky critiques how patriarchal societies have historically controlled women’s reproductive capacities, framing their ability to bear children as their primary value.
- Rich critiques the way society idealizes motherhood, often presenting it as the ultimate fulfillment of a woman’s life, while obscuring the real, complex, and often difficult experiences of mothers.
- we see this: gileads strict regime and its treatemrnt of women is a critique of the way society handles the concept of motherhood and women’s bodies
15
Q
Gustapo/ solviet Russia
A
- The eyes” of Gilead function as the regime’s secret police, monitoring citizens to ensure compliance,
- The novel thus cautions against allowing theocratic or authoritarian regimes to erode individual freedoms under the guise of moral or religious authority.
