Structures of Power and Modes of Resistance: A Neoliberal Critique in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale”

Abstract

This study examines how Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale enlightens us on the interaction between neoliberal policies and authoritarian regimes. In the fictional Gilead society, women lose all their rights and become nothing but tools for reproduction under the cover of a political and religious system. The ruling power relies on the use of fear, constant surveillance, and strict social roles to create order and repress opposition. In this research, Michel Foucault's theory on surveillance, especially the panopticon, Judith Butler's view of gender as performance, and Naomi Klein's view that crises are exploited to usher in harsh policies are used to examine the way Gilead exercises control through identity construction and manipulation of disordered circumstances. The novel also addresses the commodification of fertility and the use of language and religion as instruments of power. Despite the violence of this regime, there are also processes of resistance that are forged experienced through memory, narrative, and passive insubordination. Therefore, Atwood's novel is a warning of the threats posed by unchecked power and the pernicious aspects built into neoliberal logic, even as it suggests that gestures of resistance and humanity are still possible.