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(PDF)The Handmaid’s Tale Assignment

   

Added on  2019-11-12

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Running head: LITERATURE LiteratureName of the Student:Name of the University:Author note:

1LITERATUREIntroduction: Published in the year of 1985, The Handmaid’s Tale is regarded as one of the mostrecognized literary works of the Canadian author, Margaret Atwood (Dvorak, 2016). Since themost significant theme of the novel is the subjugation of women, it is almost impossible to readthe novel without referring to the gender issues and feminism theories which are integral to thetheme of the novel. Gender Studies: A Literary Theory of Criticism: Gender Studies is an integral theory of literary criticism which critically analyses andevaluates the presentation of masculine, feminine as well as queer (third) gendered people in theliterary creation. Ideologically speaking, most of the literary authors have rendered voice to themale perspective, and have successfully suppressed the “other” perspective rightfully belongingto the women and the members of the LGBT community. The Gender Studies, takes into carefulconsideration, how the “other” voice has been coerced into silence for ages, and how this has ledto the subjugation and denial of rights of the “weaker sex”. Thus, this form of literary criticismchallenges and interrogates the validity of normative definition of gender and sexual identity, andreinforces the importance of canonical inclusion of the female authors in literary studies. Feminist Gender Theory: An Integral Branch of Gender Studies: The Feminist Literary Criticism intends to challenge the ideological representation ofwomen in accordance with the sexual identity they are born with, in different literary articles,and examines how women are conditioned and socialized to participate in their own subjugationby men. An important feminist critic, Judith Butler considered “gender” as nothing more than ahuman and social construct that has been enacted by the continual repetition of social

2LITERATUREperformance, as seen in real life as well as portrayed in literary creations. The feminist literarycritics such as Simone de Beauvoir, Helene Cixous, and Julia Kristeva, examine and discuss thegaps, silences and spaces inherently present within the language or symbol system of a culture inwhich there should be a space for a women’s language, highly distinguishable from thenormative male-dominated discourse. This literary theory critiques male dominance, femalesubjugation and challenges the validity of social roles assigned to people, on the basis of thesexual identity they are born with. Feminism: The Handmaid’s Tale: There can be no point stating the fact that the novel The Handmaid’s Tale is not merely astory about women, but is essentially a novel with a strong feminist propaganda. The very nameof the protagonist, Offred, which literally means “Of Fred”, signifying the name of thecommander she belongs to, supports the theme of social objectification of women in the novel.In the novel, she portrays the miserable lives of the handmaids whose very identity getssubsumed by the males who exercise sexual control over them (Campbell, 2016). The women areno longer treated as separate living entities, enjoying rights of freedom, but are rather objectifiedand treated as the property of the master, as evident in their names- Offred, Ofglen andOfwarren. The novel clearly shows how Gilead most ruthlessly tries to divide women based ontheir reproductive abilities, as the fertile females are being assigned to become the handmaids,while the ardent feminists like Offred’s mother and aunt are referred to as the “unwoman”(Timonen, 2015). Queer Theory: The Handmaid’s Tale:

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