- Ecocriticism: I can look at the way The Colonies (a toxic wasteland where "Unwomen" are sent to labor) reflects contemporary climate change today. The Colonies perhaps represent what will happen to our Earth if climate change is not mitigated, and the nonchalance and inevitability with which The Colonies are viewed in Gilead may warn against the idea that climate change is not a man-made disaster.
- Feminism: I would hope to do an intersection between ecocriticism and feminism by looking at the ways that women are compared to nature: young girls are repeatedly told that they are fruit, flowers, or similar natural resources in The Handmaid's Tale. This characterization could reflect how man views women as the next fertile resource to use up after they destroyed the natural environment.
- Marxism: Even in the dystopian world of The Handmaid's Tale, class conflicts permeate the totalitarian culture. I could compare the social status of Commander's wives, Aunts, the Handmaids, Marthas, Econowives, and Unwomen.
- Psychological: Using Freud's or Jung's ideas of the collective unconscious, I could view the experiences of the Handmaidens through a psychological lens and analyze the psychological impact of their treatment.
- Christian Lit: The Handmaid's Tale has many Christian themes, especially relating to the function of women and the sanctity of life. It also has some interesting (and critical) descriptions of religion in the dystopian Republic of Gilead, which could pose an interesting comparison to Christianity.
Friday, February 21, 2020
Critical Approaches to The Handmaid's Tale
Recently, I've tried to upgrade my usual personal reading list of courtroom thrillers and young adult novels to critically acclaimed fiction. One of these added books was The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I read this in the beginning of the semester and absolutely loved it, and the fact that the novel holds literary recognition inspired me to do my own literary analysis on it.
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Wow, there is so much you can do with this book! I think my favorite approach was the ecocriticism. You could draw a parallel between how the women feel about being exploited (not good) and how the environment might "feel."
ReplyDeleteI really liked the idea of finding an intersection between ecocriticism and feminism. I think that comparison could take you a lot of different ways, and could potentially be an outlet for your other ideas as well-- especially your ideas of what will eventually happen to the earth. Maybe one of the themes in the text is that women are not only the next fertile resource, but that they could perhaps be seen as an antidote to their destruction of the environment?
ReplyDeleteRegarding Christian themes, there's a book called the Red Tent about Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph of Egypt, that talks about the tradition of women residing in a red tent during menstruating or childbearing. It could be an interesting source to compare the religious symbols of Handmaid's to.
ReplyDeleteThe connection you made regarding ecocriticism and feminism was really interesting. It reminds me of how I still hear people referring to women as flowers, fruits, and other plants today.
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with this book so I am curious how the function of women are portrayed in this book and how that relates to the sanctity of life? Are the women, since they give birth to children, a symbol of the sanctity of life?
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