 Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now...

The Handmaid's Tale

In the struggle for an ever more equitable and just society, we must lean on literature for the experience of worlds imagined. These may serve as beacons, whether welcoming or warning, to light the path we as a community want to take. In utopias we find the ideal, the prototype, the horizon on which our values and dreams converge. In dystopias, the opposite, the nightmare we wish to wake from. In this sense, science fiction in general and dystopian fiction in particular can help us better understand our world and how to improve it by showing us the inherent dangers within it.
In her award-winning novel, The Handmaid&rsquo;s Tale, Margaret Atwood offers us the vision of a future gone completely astray. In the Republic of Gilead society is puritanical, oppressive, unfair, unjust, unforgiving. But not unrealistic. In imagining this possible future for us, Atwood shows us precisely what is wrong with our present and the logical extension of it should we continue to indulge the patriarchy. As a work of dystopian fiction this proves that to imagine better worlds we must move away from the one we have inherited, and to create worse ones is as easy as keeping it the same.
This course will consist of a collective close reading of Atwood&rsquo;s novel, as well as a look into complimentary intertextual material that will hopefully inspire a critical contemplation of our society and propose new and challenging calls to actions. We will consider not just new ways of experiencing femininity and masculinity, but also the entire panoply of gender. Literature can help us think and feel in deeper and more extensive ways, and thus make us more sensitive to the pressures we face as a community. This course is aimed at building upon that foundation to inspire change, because the endless pursuit of utopia demands the participation of all.

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

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