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Dissertation
Dystopia and Testimony in Atwood's The Testaments: Atwood's Transformation of Two Literary Genres
Authors: --- ---
Year: 2021 Publisher: Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Letteren

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Abstract

This master thesis explores how Atwood transforms the dystopian and testimonial genres in her novel The Testaments (2019) in which she revisits the fictional world of Gilead. The theoretical framework provides an introduction to the broader context of the dystopia and testimony as well as their relation to prose fiction. Atwood uses traditional conventions of both genres but mostly innovates them, thus creating her own distinct version of the genres. The connection between words and knowledge is a thematic convention that Atwood employs to emphasise the dystopian nature of Gilead. The Testaments, however, presents a more hopeful dystopia as opposed to its traditional counterparts. Both the endings of the testimonies and the Thirteenth Symposium show a glimmer of a hope: Gilead has fallen and the characters have achieved personal victories. In addition, Atwood uses the character of Becka to emphasise another hopeful message: acts of female solidarity, cooperation and rebellion are necessary in tearing down a totalitarian and misogynistic regime such as Gilead. Consequently, The Testaments focuses on a strong sense of sisterhood that is reflected in the novel’s multiple perspectives and the transgression of narrative boundaries. The narrators appear in each other’s storyworld and it is their interaction and cooperation leads to the fall of Gilead. Despite the epilogue’s seemingly hopeful ending, Atwood implies that this future society is not the opposite of Gilead. Professor Pieixoto’s sexist and reductive approach is indicative of a future in which women have still not obtained a fully equal status. Pieixoto’s only interest in factual knowledge, his neglect of the experiences recalled in the testimonies and his constant questioning of their authenticity suggest that women’s voices are still being silenced long after the fall of Gilead. Finally, by exploring the character of Aunt Lydia, Atwood innovates the perpetrator testimony. Lydia criticises her own traditional perpetrator tactics and simultaneously differs from most perpetrators because she was merely keeping up pretence and intended to destroy Gilead from within. Thus, Atwood uses Lydia to explore the complexities of perpetrators living under a dystopian regime.

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