Deny None of It: A Biocultural Reading of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

Gry Faurholt

doi:10.26613/esic.5.1.207

Article

Deny None of It: A Biocultural Reading of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

Gry Faurholt

Published/Copyright: June 15, 2021

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From the journal Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture Volume 5 Issue 1

Abstract

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale has predominantly been read as a critique of patriarchy, a feminist dystopia. This article amends the feminist analysis by applying a biocultural approach to the novel, taking as its point of departure three problems that have troubled the feminist reading: Offred’s perceived passivity, the novel’s subtly critical stance towards its feminist characters, and the open ending. By taking into account the environmental context-a fertility crisis-the biocultural reading is able to analyze character in terms of survival and reproductive strategies. Recognizing that the characters are negotiating male and female mating strategies under extreme conditions leads to a deeper comprehension of the way the contrasting philosophies of radical feminism and sociobiology inform sexual politics in the Republic of Gilead.

Keywords: Margaret Atwood; The Handmaid’s Tale; dystopia; feminism; sexual politics; biocultural analysis; evolutionary psychology; mating strategies

Published Online: 2021-06-15

Published in Print: 2021-06-01

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.26613/esic.5.1.207

Keywords for this article

Margaret Atwood; The Handmaid’s Tale; dystopia; feminism; sexual politics; biocultural analysis; evolutionary psychology; mating strategies