He Has Something We Don’t Have, He Has the Word: On the Use of Language in the Struggle for Social Power in Margret Atwood’s Novel The Handmaid’s Tale.

Abstract

This thesis considers the role of language in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Atwood. It explores how language is used to oppress the female characters and at the same time is used to express the female voice within the novel. How language can be used as a means of power is carefully considered by drawing on the theories of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. Michel Foucault’s theory on discourse is used to explore the way language, power and truth fit together in order to understand how language functions as a reality constructing device of power within the novel. Butlers theory on gendered subjectivity as a discursive construct gives an understanding of the female perspective within the storyline. Together these theories help to consider the way the female voice within the novel is both repressed and resisting the male domination. This theses explores how both sides make use of language within their power struggle and how the novel portraits language as a double edged sword.