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Context (THT) - Coggle Diagram
Context (THT)
Modern Context
Divison between Canada and the US - inevitable considering the fleeing of Loyalists to Canada during/in the aftermath of the American War of Independance
- Modern disparity demonstrated between the differing approaches of Trump and Justin Trudeau
At Atwood's time of writing there was this theory that the German population would be obsolete by 2020 due to the low birth rate
Misuse of Science: Genetic modification, cloning, abortion
(major theme which makes THT a cognate, for example, of Huxley's Brave New World.
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Biographical
CAREER/EDUCATION - Attended Harvard University 1962-1963, 1965-1967 -
- as part of her degree she studied Puritanism and The Handmaid't Tale is dedicate to the professor and director of American Studies at harvard, expert in Puritan History, Peer Miller
OTHER WORKS
- "Hag-Seed" (retelling of Shakespeare's "The Tempest"
- "Old Babes in the Woods"
- "Oryx and Crake"
- "The Blind Assassin"
- "The Edible Woman"
The Handmaids Tale - written in 1984, published 1985
A sequel to THT, "The Testaments" was published in 2019
UPBRINGING
Parentage:
- Father (Carl Edward Atwood) was an entomologist (study of insects)
- Margaret Killam Atwood
- Born 1939 in Ottawa, Canada, she "came to consciousness" during WWII
- At a young age she ocassionaly attended the United Church of Canada, exploring Unitarianism, Quakerism and spiritualism
Atwood has been a lifetime environmentalist as a consequence of growing in rural Canada and her father being an entomologist
- Environmental campaigner and patron of "Friends of the Earth"
Atwood was living in West Berlin in 1984, at the height of the Cold War (1947 -1991) which carried the threat of nuclear warfare and mutually assured destruction. During her time living in West Berlin, she also visited East Berlin, Poland and Czechoslovakia - In a 2011 article by the Guardian Atwood said that "I thus had several first hand experiences of the flavour of life in a totalitarian - but supposedly utopian - regime."
Contempary Context
RELIGIOUS (HISTORICAL)
Puritans originated from the English Reformation of the sixteenth century and aimed to remove the liturgy/Catholic traditions from within the Church of England
- Renowned for their religious earnestness and the extent to which their lifestyle was informed by the faith
- Strictly conservative regarding sexuality and gender roles.
Cambridge, Massachusetts was a Puritan settlement in the seventeenth century which included Atwood's forebears. These immigrants would later go "into political exile after supporting the Loyalists.They settled in Nova Scotia, allowing Atwood to be born, generations later, a Canadian.”
Salem Village was situated in Masachussetts.
In 1692, numerous young girls began to have violent physical seizures and violent fits - doctors diagnosed bewitchment by 3 women. One of the women (Tituba) confessed, implicating numerous other women and sending Salem into a state of religious hysteria. Women were persecuted and infamously hung on Gallows hill until arbitrary, spectral evidence was later discredited.
- One of Atwood's ancestors Mary Webster was accused of being a witch and hung though survived in 1683.
- Notable example of religious hysteria and female persecution.
- Suggested that the anti-communist "witch-trials" conducted by Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s were an equivalent.
Quakers have always been regarded as progressive, involved in advocating for women’s rights from the 19th century and campaigned for the abolition of slavery as early as the 1600s
- The Underground Railway (1810-1850) was a diverse network of routes and people who assisted slaves fleeing the American South to the north, on to Canada, Mexico and Caribbean islands. Agents of the Underground Railway were often Quakers.
“I’m a strict, strict agnostic. It’s very different from a casual, “I don’t know.” It’s that you cannot present as knowledge something that is not knowledge. You can present it as faith, you can present it as belief, but you can’t present it as fact.”
The first epigraph of the book and a parable recited in the "ceremony" is the in Genesis 30. In which Jacob has two wives Racheal and Leah and Rachel has a maid, Billah. When Rachel is unable to have children by Jacob, Billah is used a surrogate.
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POLITICAL
BRITISH - Margaret Thatcher ("The Iron Lady") was the first female prime minister and was in office from 1979-1990
- Her time in office was characterised by the repression of liberal movements through privatisation, free markets
Not an advocate of feminist movements: -
- Thatcher promoted only one woman to her cabinet in her eleven years
- She claimed that she did not owe anything to women's liberation
- Policies did nothing to address female related concerns such as equal pay and child care provision
- Thatcher also introduced Section 28 in 1988 which prohibited the "promotion of homosexuality"
AMERICAN - Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
Launched an economic, moral and cultural conservatism campaign
- his refusal to address the AIDS epidemic, arguably, further disadvantaged marginalized communities and fueled right wing conservatism. For example, Reagan's press secretary actually referred to the AIDS epidemic as the "gay plague" during a 1982 press conference.
Reagan and Thatcher have been referred to as "political soulmates"
- Thatcher was able to reach and understanding with Gorbachev and convinced Reagan to do the same, contributing to the end of the Cold War
- Their mutualistic, co-occuring rulership created, what has been referred to as the "golden age of conservatism" in countries they both deemed "excessively" liberal throughout the 1960s and 70s.
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SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
The Sexual Revolution (1960s - 1970s)
- Reshaped Western societal attitudes toward sexuality, gender roles, and the family unit.
- Saw the introduction of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s
- The era was marked by an increase in premarital sex, the acceptance of divorce, and the mainstreaming of previously taboo subjects like homosexuality.
- Consequentially, this sparked backlash from conservative, religious communities who saw this liberality as the source modern moral decay
Opposition:
- The Moral Majority, established by Jerry Falwell in 1979
- Published Listen America! in 1981
- Advocated for conservatism and fundamentalism in relation to the Christian faith
- Averse to abortion, pornography, gay rights, modern science (flavouring creationism).
Disbanded in 1989 when Reagan left office as the country was not still seen to be in the same state of moral peril, but is still influential.
The Civil Rights Movement & Civil Rights Act (1964)
The Civil Rights Movement, which reached its peak in the 1960s, sought to end racial segregation and discrimination, particularly in the United States.
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation that prohibited discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin.
the movement set the stage for discussions about equality and social justice beyond race.
- The Civil Rights Movement’s achievements inspired other movements, such as those for women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights.
Second and Third Wave Feminism
- This movement expanded beyond the right to vote (which had been the focus of First Wave Feminism) to include issues like reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, and sexual autonomy.
- Legalisation of birth control in the 1960s
- Roe vs Wade in 1973 (overturned in June 2022)
Opposition:
- The Hyde Amendment (1976), which barred the use of federal funds for abortion services, was an early sign of the challenges to women’s reproductive rights.
- Phyllis Schlafly (parallel to Serena Joy?) - right wing activist and opponent to same-sex marriage, feminism abortion etc..
Environmentalism (1960s & 70s)
- Three Mile Island Nuclear Incident (1979)
- Chernobyl (1986)
- Growing social awareness of environment-related issues and acknowledgement of the interconnectedness between between ecological health, social stability and human survival
E.G, Greenpeace, campaigning network founded in 1971 by Canadian environmental activists
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Historical Context
The North Atlantic Slave Trade
- Brutality of the “middle passage” / trans-atlantic crossing and on plantations: force feedings, beatings
- Despite capital punishment being abolished for nearly all crimes in certain states throughout the nineteenth century, the death penalty was issued more freely for “offences” perpetrated by slaves.
- Under the 13th Amendment (31st January 1865) Slavery was abolished
Cambridge, Masachussetts was a Puritan stronghold in the 1600s - and instead of merely and innocuously escaping persecution in England, the Puritan colonists established their own monolithic theocracy
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