Resilience and Resistance: Women’s Struggles in The Handmaid’s Tale and A Thousand Splendid Suns

Authors

  • Dr. Ansul Chandra Assistant Professor, Ch. Charan Singh P.G. College, Heonra, Etawah.

Keywords:

Gilead, Afghan Society, Male domination, Brutality, Women’s suffering

Abstract

The Handmaid's Tale and A Thousand Splendid Suns depict the struggles of women in oppressive societies - Gilead and Afghanistan - where they endure exploitation, mistreatment, and reduced autonomy. Both these novels highlight the physical and emotional torment faced by female protagonists who are essentially reduced to vessels for reproduction. The study aims to uncover the shared condition of women in these seemingly unrelated societies, emphasizing the commonality in their experiences of victimization, sexual harassment, and suppression by both genders. Despite their suffering, the female characters resist discriminatory practices, challenging the prevailing brutality and exposing the underlying ideologies perpetuating their oppression.

Author Biography

Dr. Ansul Chandra, Assistant Professor, Ch. Charan Singh P.G. College, Heonra, Etawah.

Dr Ansul Chandra is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Ch.C. S. P.G.College ,Heonra, Etawah. She has 15 years of experience in teaching English at UG and PG level. She has participated and presented many papers in national and international conferences. She is also life member of ILLUMINATI: a translational journal of literature, language and cultural studies and member of ELTAI Kanpur Chapter.

References

Atwood, Margaret., The Handmaid's Tale. 1st ed. Penguin Random House,1985.

Hosseini, K. and Leoni, A. A Thousand Splendid Suns. 1st ed. Riverhead Books, 2007.

Jacob, Susan. “Woman, Ideology, Resistance: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and The Third World Criticism”, Margaret Atwood: The Shape Shifter. New Delhi: Creative Books, 1998, p.27.

Klarer, Mario. “Orality and Literature as Gender-Supporting Structures in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale,” Mosaic Spl. “Media Matters: Technologies of Literary Production” 28/4 1995, p.131-132.

Wagner, Linda W. Martin, “Epigraphs to Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale”, Notes on Contemporary Literature 17.2 March 1987, p.4.

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Published

01.01.2024

How to Cite

Chandra, A. (2024). Resilience and Resistance: Women’s Struggles in The Handmaid’s Tale and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Journal of Teaching and Research in English Literature, 15(1), 20–28. Retrieved from https://journals.eltai.in/index.php/jtrel/article/view/JTREL150104

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2024): January

Section

Research Articles

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