Body, Oppression And Resistance In The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood always pays keen attention to female body, which becomes a key element in her sixth novel The Handmaid's Tale. Based on textual analysis, the present study takes combined perspectives of body theories and feminist studies to explore the relationship between power and female body and demonstrate bodily oppression encountered by women in Gilead and their bodily resistance against this subjugation. This thesis argues that female body is not only a site where power mechanism inscribes meanings upon female flesh, but also can be used as powerful tool to resist against patriarchal dominance.The whole thesis is composed of three parts. In addition to introduction and conclusion part, the body is composed of three chapters. Chapter One examines bodily oppression against women. Female bodies in Gilead are degraded to dehumanized property and treated as naturalized matter in service of male dominance. Being treated as procreation machines, women feel alienated from their bodies.Chapter Two delves into the strategies Offred has taken to resist the patriarchy dominance. The power of female gaze enables Offred to revise the surveillance prescribed on her to male figures that Offred implicitly transgresses her prescribed role as a passive object. Her growing ability of looking beneath the surface of"the ordinary"life in Gilead empowers her to subvert the illusion of Gilead's absolute power. On the other hand, in a regime of abstinence, Offred gradually recognizes the subversive power of women's polymorphous sexuality and her exploring in female sexuality finally prompts her to take overt rebellion against the subjugation.Chapter Three is concerned with female identity. Through envisioning a new mother-daughter relationship and female bonding in her narrative, Offred retells a different story that female body is beyond patriarchal subjugation and women can resolve discrepancy and have an alternative female identity.In short, the present study seeks to explore in some detail the interaction between female body and power mechanism in The Handmaid's Tale in the hope that it may make some new contribution to the existing criticism of this novel and raise readers'bodily awareness.