Poster Title
P-09 The Blame Game: Complicity and Rape Culture in Margaret Atwood’s Novel and Hulu’s Adapted Series The Handmaid’s Tale
Abstract
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and the Hulu award-winning televisual adaptation (2017-Present) portray a dystopic, theocratic regime known as Gilead. The regime’s focus on female bodies and reproduction exemplifies what Kate Harding calls rape culture, a culture Gilead perpetuates through sexual violence, rape, and surveillance. Using critical race theory, media and close-textual analysis this project examines both works, arguing that complicity within the novel must be discussed in relation to rape culture and that while the series accounts for rape culture, it problematically manifests a type of feminism that privileges white women over women of color.
Start Date
2-28-2020 2:30 PM
P-09 The Blame Game: Complicity and Rape Culture in Margaret Atwood’s Novel and Hulu’s Adapted Series The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and the Hulu award-winning televisual adaptation (2017-Present) portray a dystopic, theocratic regime known as Gilead. The regime’s focus on female bodies and reproduction exemplifies what Kate Harding calls rape culture, a culture Gilead perpetuates through sexual violence, rape, and surveillance. Using critical race theory, media and close-textual analysis this project examines both works, arguing that complicity within the novel must be discussed in relation to rape culture and that while the series accounts for rape culture, it problematically manifests a type of feminism that privileges white women over women of color.
Acknowledgments
J.N. Andrews Honors Scholar and Undergraduate Research Scholar
Mentor:
Vanessa Corredera, English