디스토피아의 균열과 체제 저항 서사로서의 마가렛 애트우드의 『증언들』 (Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments as Women’s Narratives of Resistance to Patriarchal Dystopian System)

서지정보

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· 저자명 : 김선옥

초록

This paper aims to study Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel, The Testaments, as women’s active resistance narratives through which they confront patriarchal totalitarianism and bring about cracks of the dystopian system. The Testaments, a sequel to Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale focuses on the process of the rupture and collapse of Gilead’s patriarchal system established by Christian fundamentalists, which was implied in the epilogue of the previous work. Set in 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the novel is narrated by Aunt Lydia, a character from the previous novel and its main character’s two daughters, Agnes and Daisy, alternating between their perspectives presented as portions of a manuscript written by one and testimonies by the other two. Through their narratives which are joined at the end, The Testaments shows how the narratives of oppressed women from the inside serve as whistle-blowers, making cracks in the totalitarian system and eventually contributing to historical development by inducing its destruction. Aunt Lydia’s persistent writing at the risk of her life, which discloses the corruption and crimes of the totalitarian system and two girls’ testimonies which outright reveal their oppressive experiences eventually lead to the collapse of the system by causing division and enmity inside it. Margaret Atwood, who has affirmed that she did not represent anything that did not happen in real history, provides a hopeful vision for the future by presenting the possibility of overcoming the patriarchal dystopia through the ‘testaments’ of oppressed women who actively resist the system through their writing and speaking.

영어초록

This paper aims to study Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel, The Testaments, as women’s active resistance narratives through which they confront patriarchal totalitarianism and bring about cracks of the dystopian system. The Testaments, a sequel to Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale focuses on the process of the rupture and collapse of Gilead’s patriarchal system established by Christian fundamentalists, which was implied in the epilogue of the previous work. Set in 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the novel is narrated by Aunt Lydia, a character from the previous novel and its main character’s two daughters, Agnes and Daisy, alternating between their perspectives presented as portions of a manuscript written by one and testimonies by the other two. Through their narratives which are joined at the end, The Testaments shows how the narratives of oppressed women from the inside serve as whistle-blowers, making cracks in the totalitarian system and eventually contributing to historical development by inducing its destruction. Aunt Lydia’s persistent writing at the risk of her life, which discloses the corruption and crimes of the totalitarian system and two girls’ testimonies which outright reveal their oppressive experiences eventually lead to the collapse of the system by causing division and enmity inside it. Margaret Atwood, who has affirmed that she did not represent anything that did not happen in real history, provides a hopeful vision for the future by presenting the possibility of overcoming the patriarchal dystopia through the ‘testaments’ of oppressed women who actively resist the system through their writing and speaking.

참고자료

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