Shifting Spaces and Constant Patriarchy: The Characterizations of Offred and Claire in The Handmaid’s Tale and Outlander
Abstract
Starz’s Outlander and Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale follow the stories of two women as they come to terms with the new spaces they are forced to enter. In the series Claire Randall of Outlander and Offred of The Handmaid’s Tale are taken from one space and placed in a new, oppressive space dominated more heavily by patriarchal norms than the one they stem from. Offred and Claire display similarities when dealing with women’s issues such as motherhood and female sexuality. The series also highlight how women must deal with shifting times and discourses regarding societal expectations of women. Due to the complexities that Offred and Claire project when confronting challenges, both women are represented as ‘difficult’ women who defy hegemonic gendered norms of female representation on television. As they experience oppression, subjugation, empowerment, and rebellion, they develop as individuals, are far from perfect, have complicated pasts, and represent how women come to terms with convoluted identities.
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©2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Articles
- Difficult Women: Changing Representations of Female Characters in Contemporary Television Series
- “Trust no one”: Narrative Complexity and Character Opacity in Damages
- Veep, Invective Spectacle, and the Figure of the Comedic Antiheroine
- “I imagined a story where I didn’t have to be the damsel”: Seriality, Reflexivity, and Narratively Complex Women in Westworld
- Shifting Spaces and Constant Patriarchy: The Characterizations of Offred and Claire in The Handmaid’s Tale and Outlander
- Book Reviews
- Enemies of all Humankind: Fictions of Legitimate Violence
- Keywords of Mobility: Critical Engagements
- Über Raymond Williams: Annäherungen. Positionen. Ausblicke
- Books Received
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Articles
- Difficult Women: Changing Representations of Female Characters in Contemporary Television Series
- “Trust no one”: Narrative Complexity and Character Opacity in Damages
- Veep, Invective Spectacle, and the Figure of the Comedic Antiheroine
- “I imagined a story where I didn’t have to be the damsel”: Seriality, Reflexivity, and Narratively Complex Women in Westworld
- Shifting Spaces and Constant Patriarchy: The Characterizations of Offred and Claire in The Handmaid’s Tale and Outlander
- Book Reviews
- Enemies of all Humankind: Fictions of Legitimate Violence
- Keywords of Mobility: Critical Engagements
- Über Raymond Williams: Annäherungen. Positionen. Ausblicke
- Books Received
