Now we are nearly at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century, but violence still permeates in our lives at various levels. In his foreword to World Report on Violence and Health, published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002, Nelson Mandela states that “the twentieth century will be remembered as a century marked by violence”. This is followed by an examination of the three main characters and representatives of ideas. Therefore, before turning to Atwood, an outline of the chronological clashes of feminism(s) and a discussion on women and language is presented. The slogan of second-wave feminists, ‘the personal is political,’ is now as topical as it was in the 1960s, and The Testaments may well become a literary manifesto of a new (fourth) wave as part of the storm surge of feminism. Whilst the inspiration for The Handmaid’s Tale came from the rise of Christian fundamentalism, it is obvious from Atwood’s more recent statements that she considers the Trump era “a rollback of women’s rights” (2018).
Speculative fiction invites speculative criticism in this spirit, this paper investigates The Testaments (2019), tracing the rewriting of politics embedded in the narrative.
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) has recently returned to the spotlight with the success of its TV adaptation and with her decision to deliver a sequel.
0 kommentar(er)
