The shell game : the construction of gender through language in dystopian literature : with reference to the novels ‘The Handmaid’s tale’ by Margaret Atwood and ‘The power’ by Naomi Alderman

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to explore the ways in which language is able to construct gender within dystopian literature. This is of particular interest to me because of the way that social structures such as gender are regulated by the State, and how they themselves are utilised to solidify the State’s power over the people. The duality that exists in language; a tool which can be used both for constructing the dystopian State’s social structures, but also for subverting them at the same time, will also be examined. The study of dystopian fiction will center on Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale and Naomi Alderman’s The Power, which portray two societies which enforce stringent gender structures on their citizens. They present an extreme situations in which only one sex is allowed to have the power to control, change and reconstruct society, and the ways in which this advantage is used to dominate, justify and empower, specifically through the language being used. The first chapter will serve as a theoretical framework as to how society is able to construct gender through language, and how language, in turn, constructs society and gender. The second chapter will examine how language is utilised by the State to reconstruct a definition of gender which rationalises the former’s authority and justifies the power under which it subjects its citizens. The third chapter deals with the individual’s use of language as a tool to redefine gender in their own terms and reclaim the power to stand up against the regime, in hope of reconstructing society into a better alternative.