Repression And Rebellion-An Interpretation Of The Handmaid's Tale Through Foucault's Power Theory

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian novelist,poet and literature critic whose literary works have a great impact both home and abroad.As a novelist,Atwood's works encompass a variety of themes such as gender and identity,the power of language,religion and myth,climate change,and power politics.As the sixth novel composed by Atwood,The Handmaids' s Tale receives wide attention all over the world since its publication in 1985.Various study perspectives such as dystopia,feminism,environmentalism and ecofeminism are applied to this novel.According to Atwood,however,The Handmaid's Tale is a study of power,about how it operates and how it deforms or shapes the people who are living within this kind of regime.At present,there only exists a few essays analyzing this novel from the perspective of power.As a result,this thesis tends to interpret the power mechanism inside Gilead based on Foucault's power theory,and pays great attention to the Handmaid group of how power theory is applied to them,and what its influence is upon every level inside the society.This paper is divided into five parts:Chapter One mainly introduces Margaret Atwood and her novel The Handmaid's Tale,combing the characteristics of Atwood's writing style and its influence upon the novel.Domestic and foreign literature reviews are also thoroughly discussed in this chapter,which intends to shine some new light on the further analysis of The Handmaid's Tale.Chapter Two demonstrates the theocratic construction of the Republic of Gilead,and reveals its pyramid-shaped social hierarchy.Gilead's specific political and economic system helps to reinforce the regime.Chapter Three concentrates on the Handmaids' disciplined bodies from the perspective of gender performativity and physical surveillance.It is evident that the Handmaids' characters as female are extremely amplified.Their pursuit of physical beauty is severely prohibited,and the ruling class tries to supervise and exploit their physical bodies as national breeding machines.Social behavior in favor of the Gilead authority is internalized inside their minds.Chapter Four makes an analysis of the Handmaids' deprived discourse.The Handmaids are not allowed to communicate with others freely in the society of Gilead.Ossified contents of conversation confine their actions as well as ideologies.Moreover,through the wide application of filtered discourse,the Handmaids are imprisoned to certain social positions.Their important and noble missions,according to the input of national apparatus,are to serve the ruling class,take responsibility of giving birth to children,and be as obedient as possible,which facilitates the consolidation and enhancement of Gilead's theocratic regime.The Last Part makes a conclusion of the whole paper.It summarizes the major contributions and limitations.The Handmaid's Tale is regarded as a dystopian fiction,which illustrates the possible power mechanism in such a society.In Gilead,the Handmaids are severely restricted through the discipline of physical bodies and the manipulation of discourse power.They are classified as national resources,breeding for the whole nation.In addition,Atwood also provokes people's thoughts by demonstrating a possible future as well as enlightenment towards females who are still looking for their social identities.