The Handmaid's Tale and Philosophy

The Handmaid's Tale and Philosophy PDF Author: Rachel Robison-Greene
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
ISBN: 0812699963
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
In The Handmaid’s Tale and Philosophy, philosophers give their insights into the blockbuster best-selling novel and record-breaking TV series, The Handmaid’s Tale. The story involves a future breakaway state in New England, beset by environmental disaster and a plummeting birth rate, in which the few remaining fertile women are conscripted to have sex and bear children to the most powerful men, all justified and rationalized by religious fundamentalism. Among the questions raised by this riveting and harrowing story: ● The Handmaid’s Tale displays the connection between sex and power. What light does this story shed on sex and power in our own society? ● The divinity of the feminine is associated with the female capacity to give birth. Is this association inherently exploitative? ● In the story, the revolution rapidly rebranded people by changing their names and placing them into functional groups with specific titles. How important is change in language to the suppression of individual freedom? ● The Handmaid’s Tale sees everything through the eyes of one character. How is it possible to construct a self and an identity at odds with the definition which the culture attempts to impose? ● In oppressive societies, even the most oppressed do show some freedom of choice. What is the limit of autonomy in a repressive society ruled by a fanatical ideology? ● Our present ethics of sex relies heavily on the notion of consent, but in the world of The Handmaid’s Tale there is little scope for consent. How is the power of consent constricted by the broader social conditions? ● The feminist idea of Care Ethics can be used to critique various gender relationships. How does Care Ethics evaluate our own society and the society depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale? ● The society portrayed in the story is marked by fierce religiosity, yet the Christian God presumably disapproves of its brutal exploitation and oppression. What is the relation between a loving Deity and the literal interpretation of scriptural passages? ● Among many dystopian stories, what makes The Handmaid’s Tale particularly memorable, and what purpose is served by the contemplation of imaginary dystopias? ● Suicide is common in The Handmaid’s Tale, and contemplating the possibility of suicide is even more common. Can life be worth living if the political and religious structure is thoroughly malign? ● Beneath the theocratic preaching, there is the practical suggestion that everything is being arranged for the good of society and therefore of everyone. Who gets to decide and enforce what is in society’s best interests?

The Handmaid's Tale and Philosophy

The Handmaid's Tale and Philosophy PDF Author: Rachel Robison-Greene
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
ISBN: 0812699963
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Get Book

Book Description
In The Handmaid’s Tale and Philosophy, philosophers give their insights into the blockbuster best-selling novel and record-breaking TV series, The Handmaid’s Tale. The story involves a future breakaway state in New England, beset by environmental disaster and a plummeting birth rate, in which the few remaining fertile women are conscripted to have sex and bear children to the most powerful men, all justified and rationalized by religious fundamentalism. Among the questions raised by this riveting and harrowing story: ● The Handmaid’s Tale displays the connection between sex and power. What light does this story shed on sex and power in our own society? ● The divinity of the feminine is associated with the female capacity to give birth. Is this association inherently exploitative? ● In the story, the revolution rapidly rebranded people by changing their names and placing them into functional groups with specific titles. How important is change in language to the suppression of individual freedom? ● The Handmaid’s Tale sees everything through the eyes of one character. How is it possible to construct a self and an identity at odds with the definition which the culture attempts to impose? ● In oppressive societies, even the most oppressed do show some freedom of choice. What is the limit of autonomy in a repressive society ruled by a fanatical ideology? ● Our present ethics of sex relies heavily on the notion of consent, but in the world of The Handmaid’s Tale there is little scope for consent. How is the power of consent constricted by the broader social conditions? ● The feminist idea of Care Ethics can be used to critique various gender relationships. How does Care Ethics evaluate our own society and the society depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale? ● The society portrayed in the story is marked by fierce religiosity, yet the Christian God presumably disapproves of its brutal exploitation and oppression. What is the relation between a loving Deity and the literal interpretation of scriptural passages? ● Among many dystopian stories, what makes The Handmaid’s Tale particularly memorable, and what purpose is served by the contemplation of imaginary dystopias? ● Suicide is common in The Handmaid’s Tale, and contemplating the possibility of suicide is even more common. Can life be worth living if the political and religious structure is thoroughly malign? ● Beneath the theocratic preaching, there is the practical suggestion that everything is being arranged for the good of society and therefore of everyone. Who gets to decide and enforce what is in society’s best interests?

The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale PDF Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 0771008791
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
An instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (New York Times). Now an award-winning Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss. In this multi-award-winning, bestselling novel, Margaret Atwood has created a stunning Orwellian vision of the near future. This is the story of Offred, one of the unfortunate “Handmaids” under the new social order who have only one purpose: to breed. In Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships, Offred’s persistent memories of life in the “time before” and her will to survive are acts of rebellion. Provocative, startling, prophetic, and with Margaret Atwood’s devastating irony, wit, and acute perceptive powers in full force, The Handmaid’s Tale is at once a mordant satire and a dire warning.

Religion in The Handmaid's Tale

Religion in The Handmaid's Tale PDF Author: Colette Tennant
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506456316
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale captivates readers with its disturbingly prescient vision of the future and haunting insights into the world as we know it. Religion--especially elements of the Christian faith--pervades every inch of the world as Atwood imagines it. Gilead's leaders use perverse forms of Christianity to sustain their authority and privilege, making understanding religion an integral part of understanding Gilead. In the face of the inextricable role of religion in the novel, readers are left to puzzle out religious references and allusions on their own. From the significance of names to twisted uses of religion to the origins of the Ceremony, this book answers all the questions you might have about religion in this prophetic novel. For anyone who's ever googled a biblical precedent or religious phrase after encountering Atwood's dystopia, this essential guide explains it all and gives readers a fascinating look into the novel and its world. Read it and understand The Handmaid's Tale like never before.

Lire Margaret Atwood

Lire Margaret Atwood PDF Author: Marta Dvorak
Publisher: Rennes [France] : Presses universitaires de Rennes
ISBN:
Category : Canadian literature
Languages : fr
Pages : 136

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Book Description
Ce recueil bilingue consacré à l'écrivain canadien Margaret Atwood, reconnue comme l'une des figures dominantes de la littérature d'expression anglaise, contient l'intervention qu'elle a prononcée à Rennes en novembre 1998 sur son roman The Handmaid's Tale (La Servante écarlate) et sur le genre auquel il appartient. Le roman, inscrit aux programmes 1999 du CAPES et de l'agrégation d'anglais, a été l'un des plus grands succès littéraires des années 80 aux États-Unis, au Canada et en Grande-Bre.

Oryx and Crake

Oryx and Crake PDF Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307400840
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
A stunning and provocative new novel by the internationally celebrated author of The Blind Assassin, winner of the Booker Prize. Margaret Atwood’s new novel is so utterly compelling, so prescient, so relevant, so terrifyingly-all-too-likely-to-be-true, that readers may find their view of the world forever changed after reading it. This is Margaret Atwood at the absolute peak of her powers. For readers of Oryx and Crake, nothing will ever look the same again. The narrator of Atwood's riveting novel calls himself Snowman. When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people once lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary. As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories? Alone except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster, he explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief. With breathtaking command of her shocking material, and with her customary sharp wit and dark humour, Atwood projects us into an outlandish yet wholly believable realm populated by characters who will continue to inhabit our dreams long after the last chapter.

Tales of Terror from the Black Ship

Tales of Terror from the Black Ship PDF Author: Chris Priestley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1599906996
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
A follow up to Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror, this is another creepy middle grade story collection with a chilling frame. This time, the stories are all tales of the sea: pirates and plagues and storms a plenty...

Novels Into Film

Novels Into Film PDF Author: George Bluestone
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description


The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale PDF Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: Thorndike Press Large Print
ISBN: 9781432838478
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Sexual Politics in Modern Iran

Sexual Politics in Modern Iran PDF Author: Janet Afary
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521898463
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
This book charts the history of Iran's sexual revolution from the nineteenth century to today. The resilience of the Iranian people forms the basis of this sexual revolution, one that is promoting reforms in marriage and family laws, and demanding more egalitarian gender and sexual relations.

The Body Lies

The Body Lies PDF Author: Jo Baker
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0525656111
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
A young woman is assaulted by a jogger on a busy road in South London. Three years later her a job at a university in the remote English countryside is meant to be a fresh start. When one of her students starts turning in chapters that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognizes herself as the main character in his book-- and he has written her a horrific fate. Will she be able to stop life imitating art before it's too late? -- Adapted from jacket and perusal of book.