Date of Award

4-29-2020

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Department

English

First Advisor

Vanessa Corredera

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 feminist theorists call 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.

Subject Area

Atwood, Margaret, 1939- . Handmaid's tale; Rape in literature; Blame

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/240/

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