Canadian Postmodernism
and The Handmaid’s Tale (I):
Women’s Positions
Outline

Canadian Postmodernism (Linda Hutcheon)

Margaret Atwood

The HT: Plot, Genre & Background

General Questions

HT as a dystopia fiction: Women’s Positions &
Gender Ideologies in Gilead

The narrator’s ways of resistance

Household

General Criticism
Canadian Postmodern Fiction
 The distinction between the modern and the postmodern: pp.
2-3
 Both self-conscious, but the “self-consciousness of art as art is
paradoxically made the means to a new engagement with the
social and the historical world, and that is done in such a way as
to challenge (though not destroy) our traditional humanist
beliefs about the function of art in society
 Modern—search for order
 Postmodern—”[an] urge to trouble, to question and to make
both problematic and provisional any such desire for order or
truth …”
 Canadian Postmodernism – “very little of the extreme
formalism” (2) –due to its having “a more conservative
cultural history as a colony” (3)
Canadian Postmodern Fiction (2):
Paradoxes & Duality
Establishing and undercutting prevailing values and
conventions in order to provoke a questioning, a
challenging of ‘what goes without saying’ in our culture. (3)
 e.g. 1. Canada as being on the periphery (the frontier);
Geographical, generic borders
 e.g. 2. split identity p. 4
 e.g. 3. national identity p. 6
 e.g. 4. parody and irony p. 7 –”uses and abuses” the texts and
conventions of the tradition p. 8
2. Foregrounding the constructedness of writing and everything
“natural” p. 12;
3. de-constructing author-ity, facts and subjectivity p. 18
1.
Canadian Postmodern Fiction (3):
Margaret Atwood
 P. 8 – HT
 P. 11 writers – “eye-witnesses, I-witnesses”
 P. 12 “complicity” with the power structure self-reflexivity
in HT p. 17
The Handmaid’s Tale
Canadian Postmodernism and The Handmaid’s Tale
The Handmaid’s Tale: Plot
 Past and Present: Most probably in 1990’s, with
1980’s as “the time past”
 The Past: What happened in the past to make her
where she is? e.g. 51 [7];
 The present vs. the Past: the simple, constrained life
of a handmaid and her memories.
 Her routine life(present tense): shopping, eating, bathing, waiting,
ceremonies– intercourse, birthing, Salvaging.
 Her fragmentary memories in all the sections and thinking in
“Night” sections (past tense)– memories, meeting Nick, etc.
HT (1985) as a dystopian Sci-fi &
satire

features of Dystopian works: (e.g. Brave
New World, 1984, Blade Runner )
1.
Fantasy and Fear of the future
Power , Totalitarianism, War and Environmental
Pollution (the extreme outcome of technology (radiation,
2.
computerization – HT. credit card, infertility)
3.
Two-Dimensional characterization and Binary
Opposition: e.g. Aunt Lydia -- HT p. 10 (sec 2)
Targets of HT’s Satire
 Three epigraphs: Genesis, Swift’s “Modest Proposal” and a Sufi
proverb.  extremist positions endorsed by the scriptures
and satirized by Swift.
 American Fundamentalism and Puritanism
 The New Right in the 80’s and its backlash against feminism.
(e.g. Phyllis Schlafly against ERA [Equal Right Amendment])
 Feminist controversies:
 1. Anti-pornography (HT 50-51[7])
 2. Abortion: Pro-choice vs. pro-life. (the Wall—43 [6])
 U.S. domination over Canada
American Fundamentalism
 conservative movement in American
Protestantism;
 emphasizing as fundamental to Christianity the
literal interpretation and absolute inerrancy of the
Scriptures, the imminent and physical Second
Coming of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Birth,
Resurrection, and Atonement.
 In opposition to modernist tendencies in American
religious and secular life.
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=36333&tocid=0
 e.g. Serena Joy and
Tammy Faye Messner
U.S. -- Canada
 Atwood’s 1987 essay opposing the Canada-U.S. Free Trade
Agreement: “Canada as a separate but dominated country has
done about as well under the U.S. as women, worldwide, have
done under men; about the only position they’ve ever adopted
towards us, country to country, has been the missionary
position, and we were not on top.” (82)
General Questions—Gender, Genre &
Postmodern Style
 What does Atwood want to satirize and parody through the
narrator’s writing about her experience in the imaginary
nation, Gilead?
 How does Gilead control women?
 What are the biblical allusions in the novel?
 How does the narrator (Offred) maintain her identity? In
what ways is she a victim?
 Is the novel postmodern? In what ways does it inscribe
history, make “present” the past?
HT’s General Concerns
 gender fascism
Women’s or Canada’s
autonomy.
 Ways of constructing one’s self-identity (memories,
story-telling, etc.) and uniting resisting forces.
Gilead’s Location:

1.
2.
Clues:
Offred escape north of Maine; the Historical notes: “Maine”
p. 381
News broadcast: p. 107
1.
2.
3.
The underground organization has sent resources to Canada.
Five Quakers were arrested in a place which used to be
Detroit.
Montreal Satellite station is blocked. 105
Gilead’s Location (2):


Atwood’s interpretation: Boston.
“The Wall is the wall around Harvard yard. All those little
shops and stores mentioned are probably there at this very
minute. I lived in Boston for four years. It’s also the land
of my ancestors. . . . They were Puritans of the 1630 – 1635
immigration. . . . “ (87).
Literary Associations of Gilead
1.
2.
The Scarlet Letter (e.g. Hutcheon p. 8)
American Renaissance (e.g. scholars such as Leslie Fieldler,
Harry Levin.)
Gilead’s Control: Spatial constraints
I. Gilead's geography:
 Commander's Compound (Kitchen, lawn
with flowers, handmaid's room); gate 18;
p. 23
 Red Center, --punishments p. 118
 the streets and the stores (Lilies, Milk
and Honey, All Flesh) pp. 31
 the Wall, pp. 42 black market pp. 19, 41
 (Jezebel)
Gilead’s Control: Spatial/Physical
constraints (2)
 I. Offred’s Room: p. 9 –10
 Archaic,
 Reduced to the basic facilities.
Gilead’s Control 2: Thought Control


1.
2.
3.
No talking, no thinking – p. 10; total control of
news broadcast 105-107
ideologies implied in salutes and sayings:
Fertility-- "Blessed be the fruit"; "May the God
open"--p. 25; "Praise be." p. 26; "Think of
yourself as seeds." p. 25;
Surveillance-- farewell = "Under His Eye" p. 59.
"The Republic of Gilead knows no bounds.
Gilead is within you." p. 31
Self-Restraint- "Waste not, want not." p. 9; two
kinds of freedom p. 33; "Modesty is invisibility" p.
38; "All Flesh is weak" p. 60. "Men are sex
machines" 186
Gilead’s Control 3: Hierarchy
 Gilead‘s hierarchy and names:
 Commander, Eye (24, 29; 38),
 Angel, Guardian of the Faith (27-28),
 Guards 30
 Wife, 16, 18-19; 20-21-22
 Aunt, pp. 4, 25; 33
Tourists p.
37-38
 Handmaid—their names, Janine p. 35, 36;
Martha, p. 13-; 28; Econowives p. 32, widow,
p. 32, Unwoman
 Gilead's color: black, blue, etc. pp. 12, 29
The Handmaid's Tale:
Gilead
 Gilead's Thought Control: Aunt pp. 25;
33
 the Eye -- anybody can be the Eye
 Why is there such an authoritarian nation,
Gilead?
 Feminist controversies over porn,
abortion, Feminism backlash,
computerization, environmental pollution,
etc.
Intertexual References to Patriarchal
Texts
 Intertextuality:
 Bible
 The Little Red Riding Hood, p. 11; garden p. 16; red tulips
44-45
 Scarlet Letter, etc.
The Handmaid's Tale:
Themes & Intertexuality
 Biblical Allusions –
 Martha, devoted herself to housework while her sister Mary
sat and listened to Jesus.
 Jezebel -- tried to kill the Lord's prophets and encouraged
Ahab to do evil. the dogs would devour Queen Jezebel's body
The Handmaid’s identity
Question:
 How does the narrator, Offred, re-construct her
identity after she is reduced to just the role of
being a handmaid?
Offred – June
I and my Name: e.g. 10-11 [2] “I keep the knowledge
of [my] name like something hidden, some treasure I’ll
come back to dig up, . . .” (108)
 Self – 1. senses: her smell 1, p. 10, empathy 29, look 24;
desire 39
 Body: enjoys the power of a dog bone 30;
her idea of freedom 38;
 Relate to the others: yearning 4-5; talk 13-14; Nick
24; 28-29-30; 45 Ofglen; the previous girl 69-70

Offred – June

Language redefined: -- no reading, no store names. P.
33
1.
2.
3.



Habits 33; lie/lay 49 [7]
food (date rape 50 );
Her Language -- similes: 19, 20, 23, 43; Waiting as the long
parenthesis of nothingness. (89)
Night p. 49 & memory:
Memory – p. 16; 32- Moira, Mother; about Luke 15,
44; daughter pp. 51-52
Criticism p. 25; and correcting Aunt's lessons in her
head 25; 60 “All flesh is weak. All flesh is grass.”
The Bible --Later
 P. 251- “My God. Who Art in the Kingdom of Heaven,
which is within.
 I wish you would tell me Your Name, the real one I mean.
But You will do as well as anything. . . .
 I have enough daily bread, so I won’t waste time on that.
It isn’t the main problem. The problem is getting down
without choking on it.
 Deliver us from evil.
 Then there’s Kingdom, power, and glory. It takes a lot to
believe in those right now. But I’ll try it anyway. In Hope,
as they say on the gravestones. . . .
Handmaid’s identity (2): Summary
 Keen desire & physical senses desire
(e.g. Nick & the guardian)
 Relate to people around her
 re-constructions of the past.
Offred as a Complicit Victim –
Ambiguous Position
 Next Time --
The Victim’s In-between Positions: between the
commander and his wife:
Commander – meetings in the study, going to Jazebel,
Wife – Nick
HT as a Postmodern Fiction
 Inscribe the past textually
 Self-consciousness in writing:
 pp. 21;
 51-54 (after her memory of the daughter);
 history and fiction p. 86
 Self and body p. 73
“Household”
 What are the purposes of turning sexual intercourse into a
public ceremony? How is Offred treated in the Ceremony?
Does this happen today?
 How does she maintain her sense of self when it is denied by
the others?
Gilead’s control of sexuality
 Not about romance, passion or desire; only a matter of duty. p.
122
 The man can still enjoy it with two women.
 Women turned into “ailing mothers” p. 123.
 Sexual intercourse ritualized; endorsed by the Bible.
 Offred: like a furniture, arms being held by Serena p. 121
Offred/June’s self-assertion
 Language -- Re-definition of household p. 103-104; tense,
tensed 127; Offred, Off-red.
 Relating to others: Feeling her contact with Nick 104;
 Praying "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum": "Don't let the
bastard grind you down." p. 117
 Watching him (returning the gaze p. 113)
Offred/June’s self-assertion
 Remembering as a way of escape:
 pp. 108-109 (escape);
 p. 115 (Moira),
 Self-assertion after the ceremony p. 124
 Which of the above is the most powerful way of resistance? Are they
all internal thinking and thus not actually powerful?
The Handmaid’s Tale:
General Criticism
 Critique of patriarchal control –
 How does the handmaid resist? Is she passive? e.g. Not
actively involved in May Day underground group, loves hand
cream, Vogue, Sleeps with both the Commander and Nick, the
ending.
General Criticism (2):
HT as a national allegory using
conservative feminism?
 -- "[The Handmaid's Tale]'s understanding of female
independence is determined by Atwood's sexually coded
understanding of Canada and America. In this, Atwood's full-scale
parody of American society, what concerns her is not a feminist
politics of emancipation, but the nationalist politics of selfprotective autonomy, an autonomy which, as I will argue,
eventually translates into an advocacy of traditional femininity."
(Sandra Tomc 74)
General Criticism (3): Offred too passive and
un-political?
 “[Atwood] seems to privilege the female existential will, the
realm of private consciousness, as an adequate recompense
for. . . enslavement.” (Glenn Deer 85).
 “. . . when [Offred] is finally contacted by the resistance, she is
curiously uninterested. She has sunk too far into the
incestuous little household she serves. . . “ (Barbara
Ehrenriech.)