Discussing the Feminist Agenda in Margaret Atwood's Dystopian Novels. "The Handmaid’s Tale" and "MaddAddam"

Muñoz González, María Esther (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: In this article, an analysis is made of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and MaddAddam (2013) from a gendered and generic perspective. The Handmaid’s Tale was one of the novels that marked the dystopian turn in the 1980s writing of fiction, while MaddAddam is, for some critics, a feminist critical dystopia in which the ending retains hope for a better future. Consequently, both novels belong a priori to a specific branch of the dystopian genre: the feminist dystopian novel. However, some ambiguity or even contradictory readings can be inferred in both texts. This article explores The Handmaid’s Tale and MaddAddam’s portrayal of women and their acts of resistance in order to assess these texts’ liberatory or still inherently conservative messages of their endings, especially regarding women.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.18172/jes.4809

Año: 2022

Publicado en: Journal of English Studies 20 (2022), 179-196
ISSN: 1576-6357

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 0.4 - Arts and Humanities (Q2) - Social Sciences (Q4)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.112 - Literature and Literary Theory (Q2) - Cultural Studies (Q3) - Linguistics and Language (Q3)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/H03-20R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2019-106855GB-I00

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

Área (Departamento): Área Filología Inglesa (Dpto. Filolog.Inglesa y Alema.)