『핸드메이드 이야기』에 나타난 여성의 디스토피아와 글쓰기 작업에 관한 연구 = Feminist Dystopia and Feminine Writing in The Handmaid's Tale

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, strictly speaking, consists of two stories. One is told by a handmaid, Offred, of the Republic of Gilead in the 21st century. The other is "Historical Notes" on this text by a male professor in 2195. The first story reveals feminist dystopia through the control of women's body and language. For survival the female narrator reconstructs her won story in her head. The second story is in a form of future symposium on the first story, on the historical background of Gilead and textual authentication of The Handmaid's Tale. It implies the sexist attitude of male discourse.
The male-dominated Gilead, based on a new religious fundamentalism, eliminates any sexuality beyond what is required for procreation and divides women into several status. Handmaids exist as national resources and are assigned to the homes of party officials in order to procreate. They are controlled in all aspects of their lives, including their clothing, residence, food, and language. This paper focuses on the control of language, on such things as erasing a woman's name. It is an effective method for the control of a woman's body and identity. It brings feminist dystopia.
As an act of resistance and survival in the totalitarian Gilead, Offred steals the language from the patriarchy and writes her story in her head. Thus she reconstructs her own private space, a verbal space. To write, to speak, is to assert one's subjectivity. While telling her tale, however, she deconstructs it. She plays with and questions the limits of language and of storytelling. Her narative can be examined in the light of feminie writing. She uses dazzling word play, puns paradoxes, and metafictional revisions.
The Handmaid's Tale shows feminist dystopia through the control of language, and in order to survive in such a terrible situation the storyteller reconstructs her won verbal space against the controlling social space. Her tale is feminine writing against male-dominated logocentrism.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 1. 서론
• 2. 두 개의 가상 이야기
• 3. 여성의 디스토피아와 언어공간의 창조
• 4. 결론
• 참고문헌
• Abstract