handmaids tale- context Flashcards
what is the overarching feminist view of the novel
feminist critique is that there is a objectifying male gaze and the binary logic that undergird’s patriarchal society
where did atwood write the novel?
West Berlin and Alabama in the mid-1980s.
what year did she write the novel?
mid 1980’s
what do dystopian novels do?
- present imagined worlds and societies that are not ideals, but instead are terrifying or restrictive.
what feminist vision is presented?
Atwood’s novel offers a strongly feminist vision of dystopia.
what elections inspired this novel?
shortly after the election of Margaret thatcher, the first woman british prime minister of Britain.
what did the growing power of ‘religious right mean?’
The growing power of this “religious right” heightened feminist fears that the gains women had made in previous decades would be reversed.
-the criticised the ‘sexual revolution of the 60’s and 70’s’
what is the ‘american right wing movement’?
-This 1980s American movement had conservative ideas about moral behaviour and the role of women in society, which are mirrored in Gilead
how are ideas of ‘american right wing movement’ seen in novel?
Gilead’s ideas on religion are reminders of the fundamentalist views of the American New Right movement.
how is satire used?
-Atwood uses the dystopian genre to satirise the extreme views of American 1980s conservatism.
who is mary webster?
- Atwood’s own ancestry lies in Puritanism: her relative, Mary Webster, was hanged as a witch in 1683.
- novel as attributed to mary webster
evidence of puritan ideals within the novel?
- theocracy and patriarchy are features of oppression
- The strict rules of dress and behaviour forced upon Offred are symbolic of the Puritan view of women as inferior. pg18
how do buildings in gilead show evidence of puritanism?
- Puritan New England, first buildings were a prison and gallows – symbols of oppression like the Wall, and the University where Salvagings take place.
how are the new names given to the women reminiscent of puritan ideals?
because in puritan new England women were given new names to show ownership e.g. virtue, justice =offred, offgeln
how does she subvert the masculine dystopia?
- Atwood subverts the genre of masculine dystopia by handing the story to a female;
- the novel can be interpreted as critiquing women’s marginalisation in a patriarchy.
how are stories of early feminists echoed in the novel?
- Offred’s mother- Women’s Liberation Movement, which campaigned for women’s sexual freedom in America in the late 1960s.
- Early feminists burnt pornographic books and organised pro-abortion rallies;
a feminist interpretation for role serena joy?
-Serena Joy may be modelled on Phyllis Schlafly, an extreme right activist who travelled America urging support for her conservative views on women.
how does this theme of abortion relate to today?
- currently much debate about abortion in today’s society, where it is still banned in some countries (southern ireland)
- pg.129
what are attitudes to sexuality?
ugh
What would be a feminist interpretation of the fact that the book was written by a woman
- the fact that the whole book comes from the one perspective of a female
- she was able through all the oppression to get her story out
