The The Bible, Religion, and Power in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale: A Close Reading from the Perspective of Biblical Scholarship

This article offers a close reading of Atwood’s famous novel from the perspective of biblical scholarship. Anyone who reads The Handmaid’s Tale will readily notice how strongly biblical texts inform the narrative and the fictional world of Gilead. This relationship begins with Genesis 30:1-3, which...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:Fiction, Religion and Politics in The Handmaid’s Tale
Main Author: Hartenstein, Friedhelm 1960- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Institut f. Fundamentaltheologie 2024
In: Journal for religion, film and media
Year: 2024, Volume: 10, Issue: 1, Pages: 25-46
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Atwood, Margaret 1939-, The handmaid's tale / Genesis / Fundamentalism (Motif) / Totalitarianism (Motif) / Reproduction (Motif) / Surrogate motherhood / Surveillance (motif) (Motif) / Faith (Motif)
IxTheo Classification:CB Christian life; spirituality
CD Christianity and Culture
CG Christianity and Politics
CH Christianity and Society
HB Old Testament
NCF Sexual ethics
TK Recent history
Further subjects:B Power and Reproduction
B Law
B Surrogate Motherhood
B Bible
B Ideology
B Religion
B Biopolitics
B Margaret Atwood
B Old Testament
B The Handmaid's Tale
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Description
Summary:This article offers a close reading of Atwood’s famous novel from the perspective of biblical scholarship. Anyone who reads The Handmaid’s Tale will readily notice how strongly biblical texts inform the narrative and the fictional world of Gilead. This relationship begins with Genesis 30:1-3, which appears as an epigraph. Religion in all its complexity is a cornerstone of the novel. The article looks at its threefold use of religion: as a biblically based foundation of the ideology and power structures of Gilead, as an anthropological foil for the leitmotif of seeing and being seen in Offred’s story, and as a point of departure and reference for the main character’s personal reflections. The article limits itself to observations based on the novel as first published in 1985.
ISSN:2617-3697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for religion, film and media
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.25364/05.10:2024.1.2