Sophie's Annotated Bibliography on Ecocriticism and The Handmaid's Tale

Working Annotated Bibliography: The Handmaid's Tale

Through researching The Handmaid's Tale, I have found that an ecocriticial analysis of this seemingly unenvironmnetal novel is not all that far-fetched. There are a few scholarly essays out there analyzing The Handmaid’s Tale in a similar way, bolstering my argument and providing some good quotes and ideas to expand on. I also have enjoyed researching historical sources since they provide very interesting insight into the context surrounding Atwood when she was writing, and I hope to find more of these sources in subsequent research.

1. [newspaper found through library database/proquest]

"Environment Canada Reports One Acidic Rainfall Last Week: [FINAL Edition]." The Gazette, 1985, p. A.2. Global Newsstream. Web. <https://search-proquest-com.erl.lib.byu.edu/docview/431229881?accountid=4488>.

This is a straightforward news article that reports an acid rainfall in Canada in 1985. At this time, worries about pollution and toxic waste were at an all time high, and the world was beginning to see the consequences of human behavior. Margaret Atwood was especially interested in the impact of human pollution and waste on the environment, and knowing that almost fiction-like events were taking place at the time Atwood was writing The Handmaid’s Tale underscores the environmental aspect of the book.

2. [e-book found through HBLL] Joshua, Suka. “An Ecocritical Investigation of Margaret Atwood’s Futuristic Novels.” Essays in Ecocriticism edited by Nirmal Selvamony, Nirmaldasan, Rayson Alex, Sarup & Sons, 2007, pp. 207-215. As the name implies, this e-book was a compilation of essays analyzing works of literature through an ecocritical lens. The essay that I focused on was an ecocritical investigation into Margaret Atwood’s novels, including The Handmaid’s Tale, making it an extremely helpful source for my essay.

3. [article found through LION database) Hooker, Deborah. "(Fl)Orality, Gender, and the Environmental Ethos of Atwood's the Handmaid's Tale." Twentieth Century Literature 52.3 (2006): 275-0_6. Literature Online. Web. This scholarly article analyzes The Handmaid’s Tale from an ecofeminist lens, focusing on Atwood’s descriptions of flowers and nature. Although this was not the focus of my paper, some of the points made in the article were very helpful to understand how one reads The Handmaid’s Tale ecocritically, and I was able to establish a broader understanding of ecocriticism.

4. [dissertation/electronic thesis from Gale Literature Database]

Ketterer, David. "Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Tale: A Contextual Dystopia." ScienceFiction Studies 16 (1989): 209-17. Gale Literature Criticism; Gale. Web.

Although this essay is not focused on the ecocritical aspects of The Handmaid’s Tale, it explains the context surrounding the writing of the book as well as in the book itself. Since ecocriticism lends itself well to setting and historicism, this essay was very helpful in establishing an understanding of the context surrounding The Handmaid’s Tale and how I can relate it to ecocriticism.  

5. [non-textual source (image) found through Google Images]

This image is from season 2 of the Hulu adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. It is of a woman in the Colonies, a toxic wasteland where infertile/disobedient handmaids are sent to dispose of bodies and clean up pollution. She is wearing a gas mask because the air is so toxic and full of chemicals, making the Colonies uninhabitable and lethal. This exhibits the destruction of nature that Atwood illustrates in The Handmaid’s Tale on a visual level.