The Handmaid?s palimpsest: textual and subjective construction in Margaret Atwood?s novel?

CHIACCHIO, CECILIA

Sao Leopoldo

Congreso; 15.6 7th International Gender and Language Association Conference (IGALA); 2012

International Gender and Language Association

?We slept in what had once been a gymnasium.? Seemingly innocent, the opening remark in The Handmaid?s Tale, with the remains of the past not fully erased before the inscriptions of the present, reveals a central image in the book; the palimpsest. In fact, Margaret Atwood?s 1985 dystopia is itself a two-fold text: the tale itself (in Gilead, a totalitarian regime, Offred is used as a handmaid for procreation, until her escape and recording of the events on tapes) and the historical notes (a transcription of a conference given by Professor Peixoto about the discovery, transcription and arrangement of the story on the tapes) This presentation explores the textual construction of The Handmaid?s Tale and its relation with the subjective construction of the female voice in the novel. Based on Butler?s formulations on discourse and subject, and on Baccolini and Moylan?s views on dystopias, we consider, especially, the importance of memory and language within a genre/gender frame. We also consider Fairclough?s studies on language and social identity construction. In dystopias, taking control of language and memory is a strategy leading to the characters? active resistance. Following Butler?s formulation that the subject does not constitute herself but within language and convention, we trace this process of awareness in the protagonist: from her being silenced and deprived of a past to the reappropriation of language and memories, and the final recording of her story. On a second level, we explore the implications of the discourse arrangements as explained in the historical notes, and Atwood?s ironic presentation of the male voice of the academia. Offred?s tapes are transcribed and arranged by male scholars in what they consider ?guesswork?. The fact that this woman?s voice and account is to be taken as ?what really happened?, then the fact that the arrangement of those events is just approximate, comments both on the effort to give shape to chaos through language and on the latter?s limitations to render reality. But most importantly, it also poses what Butler refers to as the discursive nature of what we perceive as reality. The palimpsest as a metaphor, then, allows Atwood to explore the complexity of power and subjectivity within the frame of discourse: Peixoto?s voice, which usurped Offred?s, is ironically deauthorized by Atwood herself ? a nice twist on the female voice in the academia and mainstream literature.