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Handmaid's Tale Context - Coggle Diagram
Handmaid's Tale Context
Cold War
USSR bombs diffused over Canada = least citizen loss. Constant threat of nuclear war breaking out. Established social and political order could 'vanish overnight'
Development of intelligence agencies - CIA, KGB
Berlin Wall
Supposed to stop Western 'fascists' entering East Berlin but actually served to stop defections from East to West.
Novel partially written in West Berlin. Fell 1989, novel published 1985
A tool of advocacy, psychological control and isolation
Feminism
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Second Wave (1960s): WLM and abortion rights, liberation of 'women at the hearth' concept, fought for gender equality (equal rights and pay to men). Backlash from neo-conservative movements (American New Right, Phyllis Schlafly)
Betty Friedan's 1963 Feminist Mystique: social commentary on assumption that women are fulfilled by housework and domestic maternal roles.
Nazi Germany/ WW2
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Gestapo = secret police, network of informants
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Superiority of 'Aryan' race, persecution of minority groups - 6 million Jews killed.
Puritanism
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Atwood studied at Harvard under Perry Miller, a professor of Puritanism
Set sail on Mayflower in 1620, established a colony in the New World under John Winthrop. Built prison and gallows.
Women = subservient and obedient to their husbands, viewed as representatives of God in the household. Women = sinful and more vulnerable to temptation (Eve), needed male guidance. Arranged marriage, no rights to own property, wore long gowns to dress modestly.
1979 Iranian Revolution
Overthrow of oppressive Pahlavi dynasty --> Islamic Republic. Ended decades of modernisation efforts as women's rights to vote, work, divorce and dress freely were silenced under new laws. Women were at first in favour as they wanted to protect their religious identity from Western influence. Mandatory hijab = represents womens' isolation and subordination to state authority.
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