Slippery Nature Of Lang

Question 1

Key ideas

Answer 1

Gilead is a nightmarish totalitarian state in which religious fundamentalism not only deprives people of of their agency but also enacts total oppression.

Exclusion of specific words like ‘sterile’, the destruction of the past, and banning of books are used as insidious strategy to construct a pseudo-reality which becomes real.

Religious discourses acts as a shadowscreen for the power leaders to use to enact brutal and barbaric acts without creating sus that they r, in reality, tyrants.

Tot regime erases past remnants, censor lang and so that nothing can challenge the absolutism of the regime.

Question 2

Language deepens an individual’s…

Answer 2

Capacity for thought and creative ability and enhances the power of perception

Question 3

Caution about the perils of..

Answer 3

Tot propensities

Question 4

Regime employs censorship of language as a controlling mechanism to condition its subjects linguistically so that they may not be able to think contrary to the prevalent status quo.

Answer 4

Tool for total submission
Repression through language: Foucault’s concept of discourse - people r unconsciously forced to take their positions as natural instead of discursively constructed. Male-dominated patriarchy does so by introducing new class words such as Martha’s, wife, Jezebel and hms to the social structure. The creation of a new vocab assigns new roles that women are supposed to play.

By promulgating these roles, the regime constructs not only a new reality but also legitimises it through theocratic discourse.

Question 5

Despite being cognisant of the past reality, every gileadean woman must..

Answer 5

Espouse her role or no longer be accepted in society as a woman, declared as ‘unwoman’, a euphemism for the death sentence.
Offred’s patronymic name symbolises her commodification; she is no longer a person but property.
Atwood’s use of metonym and synecdoche- reducing women to titles like ‘hms’ and ‘Martha’s reinforce objectification.

Question 6

Resistance

Answer 6

Tapes and memories
Nick and offred
METAFICTION
Offers a scope for subversion and a route out of passive acceptance
Retrospective, non-linear story distorted by memory and self-conscious reconstructions.

Question 7

Historical notes

Answer 7

Lang can only be so powerful if people choose to listen.

Question 8

Prayvganzas and particicution

Answer 8

Help to capture the frenzy and hysteria of this theocracy

Question 9

Psychological tool

Answer 9

Cathartic outlet ‘her fault’ x3
No quotation marks
Classic example of linguistic relativism: lang can influence our thoughts and behaviour- this ritual humiliation is not just about mechanically repeating words but absorbing their meaning and internalising their doctrine until they ‘meant it.’

Question 10

Comparisons

Answer 10

Conformity in hm but assimilation in frank
Restrictive
Shapes societal roles
Can lead to something barbaric and monstrous