language and totalitarianism
- totalitarian regimes have always tired to control the language of their citizens
- -> Nazi greeting ‘Heil Hitler’
- Both Hitler and Mussolini invented titles to suggest at a power previously unseen
- In Orwell’s 1984 ‘Newspeak’ imagines a government limiting language so far that it becomes impossible to even think subversively
Naming in Gilead
- as names only exists for social purposes (if there was only one person, they wouldn’t need a name) controlling names means controlling social roles
- the naming of Handmaids extends our patronymic system (where kids and wives take fathers name)
- -> derive their identity from whichever commander temporarily owns them
re - employing words
Neologisms e.g. salvaging and prayvaganza
–> hard to distinguish between biblical language and advertising jargon
‘It’s genius was synthesis’ - redefinition of meaningful terms erodes Offred’s ability to recall ideas from the past that could help her resist
manipulation of the bible
- Jesus scolds Martha for prioritizing household chores, yet this is exactly what Gilead want their martha’s to do
- Offred only has access to degraded theology, so has a difficult relationship with faith
- thought of amazing grace could be a spiritual moment, but she forgets the words and moves on to a pop song
the risk of speaking
- saying anything in public is risky (tourists)
- Offred is unwilling to resist the state publicly or physically - rebellion restricted to her mind
- controls what she sees and hears, but not how she interprets them. She seeks subversive and alternative meanings (waste not want not)
Small subversion
- Moira’s fierce swearing
- finds beauty in the face of a hanged man
- mental escapes (from blood of the hanged to flowers)
Link to Hamlet
-both pun compulsively in their private thoughts to negotiate an oppressive state
- Offred slips between meanings and symbols to avoid the states imposed meanings, but this alienates her from the world around her
- -> must make conscious efforts to reconnect with reality
Scrabble
-if merely speaking is dangerous, playing with language becomes thrillingly taboo
- ultimately brings out Offred’s subjectivity so she is mentally present in the ceremony
- -> she sees him as a person rather than a rank and role
Limits of language
- in the end her escape must be physical rather than linguistic
- can only truly escape when the narrative ends, and Atwood lets her slip in to silence, historical uncertainty and freedom
American’s puritan past (17th century)
- Mary Webster is a symbol of hope, she was wrongly accused and her neighbors stood and watched as she survived a hanging
- particiutions and salvaging
The Dystopian genre
- imagined societies that reflect some of the social and political realities of the times in which they were written
- historical notes highlights links to real society
- link to Orwell’s narrative approach, but with a new inflection (female P.O.V!)
Religious fundamentalism in 1980s america
- Ronald Reagan as president
- rigth wing backlash against growing liberalism of the 60s and 70s
-Christian religious fundamentalists called for the banning of certain books and tightening on abortion laws
- Gilead crushes the liberal 60s and 70s
- Moira coming out
- pg 82 - the commander reading the bible
Iran and Islamic fundamentalism
-1979 global crisis, American hostages held at US embassy in Tehran
- pg 169: blame on islamic fundamentalism
- salvaging
rise of feminism in 60s and 70s
- the pill (pg 299)
- divorce more common
- women demand right to work and equal pay
- Offred’s mum (pg 113)
1980s - second wave feminism
starting to question the thinking of early feminism
–> pg 120 “you wanted a women’s culture”
Michel Foucault
marxist philosopher who wrote about gender
highlights the relationship between language, power and sexuality
-argues that societies built on surveillance and linguistic control strip women of their sense of self
postmodern novel
- structure: historical notes. audio recorder.
- ties in to dystopia
-experimental. Plays with the conventions of genre. Night 8 –> imagining what happened to Luke
concerns about the impact of human activity on the environment
- 1971 - Greenpeace founded
- impact of pesticides and fertilisers on human fertility
- pg 299
- pg 104-105
Fears of nuclear war and nuclear disaster
explosion of nuclear power plant in 1986 - Chernobyl
-description of colonies
1990-2009 response to novel
- USA and Canada: challenges to inclusion in curricula
- too explicit, profanity/blasphemy, suicide, illicit sex
More recent responses to the novel
- seen as anti-islamic or anti-christian
- never been out of print
- a film, opera, play, ballet and series
modern protests
- 2017: Tennessee ban on late-term abortion
- 2018: Irish referendum legalizes abortion
- 2018: Golden globes
- 2019: US states
context of production
- 1984 west berlin
- Born in 1939. Novel explores how stability can be overturned overnight
- chillingly plausible, does not include anything that is not in the contemporary readers world
Atwood on utopia
“real reason that people expect so much… it set out to be a utopia”
what inspired the handmaids outfits?
illustration on 1940s Dutch cleaning product for sinks
Handmaids names
remove identity and individuality
- sense of ownership
- emphasizes role
wives names
illusion of individuality and power
Gilead as a setting
false theocracy
women regarded and resources
background of conflict
rituals and ceremonies give false sense of power
ostensibly founded to address fertility issues
Perspective
female
present (tension, vulnerability, insight)
limited (low status)
focus (on handmaids)
red
guilt/sin
sex
warning
Moon
feminine
time (embodies cycle)
was there before Gilead and will be there after
control (tides and seasons)
passivity (reflected rather than direct light)
Eyes and mirrors
mirrors in Jezebels marks it out from rest of regime
self - policing
constant surveillance
flowers and fruit
gardens are surrogate fertility for wives
lily of valley –> trying to hold on to youth
-Mary’s womb
Biblical imagery
twisted to justify and control
wall as biblical parallel
