Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

While some critics have read Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” as nostalgic for liberalism, Offred’s memories of the time before Gilead portray a subjectivity shaped by what Rosalind Petchesky calls “privatism,” marked by an emphasis on self-reliance and choice, and the narrative points to the congruence of this subjectivity with the abuses of authoritarianism. The narrative demonstrates that a liberal narrative of self-determination is not sufficient for women’s liberation and points instead toward a connected subjectivity, exemplifying what Donna Haraway describes as “the permeability of boundaries in the personal body and the body politic.” Through the development of an awareness of touch, the narrative emphasizes the continuity between liberal America and Gilead and sketches a liberatory alternative to liberalism that deconstructs the physically and psychologically bounded self.