“The Handmaid’s Tale”: a legal-literary essay

• Main Authors: Clarice Beatriz da Costa Sohngen, Danielle Massulo Bordignon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Rede Brasileira Direito e Literatura 2019-06-01
• Series: Anamorphosis
• Subjects: “The Handmaid’s Tale”; feminismos; dignidade da pessoa humana; igualdade de gênero; violência simbólica.
• Online Access: http://rdl.org.br/seer/index.php/anamps/article/view/475

This paper proposes an analysis of the legal aspects present in the narrative of The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel by Margaret Atwood. First published in 1985, and heavily influenced by second-wave feminism, The Handmaid’s Tale addresses, mainly, the matter of gender inequality, once it creates a reality in which fertile women are compelled to reproduce through a servitude system. Through a rupture with the cartesian dichotomy whose dualist notion separates objectivity from subjectivity, reason from emotion, this paper exposes that this oppression is not a literary creation by Atwood, but a reproduction of the power relations put forward in the history of humankind. In this regard, it is explored how Literature can aid the Law in facing the questions that come up in the resolution of legal and social problems. Besides gender inequality, it is possible to spot in the text several violations concerning the principle of human dignity. Therefore, this research analyzes the legal provisions taken in the fictional space of Gilead, as well as in the country that preceded it, the United States of America, and in Brazil. In addition, it studies the symbolic violence to which women are submitted in Gilead and how it relates to the experiences lived by contemporary Brazilian women.