Ludic Perversions and Enduring Communities in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

0Citations
Citations of this article
3Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.
Get full text

Abstract

This chapter addresses how Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale builds on Orwell’s work by exploring intersections of classism and sexism. In the spirit of Orwell’s socialism, Atwood’s dystopia critiques capitalism and privatization. Just as Nineteen Eighty-Four demonstrates that progressive rhetoric can be appropriated for totalitarian purposes, The Handmaid’s Tale shows how the language of feminism can be distorted by a chauvinist ruling elite to support regressive gender roles. Atwood also reworks Orwellian thought by having her narrator embrace doublethink as a means of preserving, rather than undercutting, sanity. The bizarre sexual relationship between the narrator and the Commander awakens her moral sensibilities and inspires her to leave her record. Reversing Orwell’s gender roles, Atwood casts the Commander as an unwitting revolutionary from the waist downward.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Horan, T. (2018). Ludic Perversions and Enduring Communities in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. In Palgrave Studies in Utopianism (pp. 169–202). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70675-7_8

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free