The Concept of Identity and Subaltern in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

Identity is a contested concept in the presently diverse and multicultural world, and is reflected in the works of literature as well. Great numbers of theoretical works have been applied to literary works concerning the issue of identity, the most recent of which is postcolonial criticism. Spivak, the prominent figure in postcolonial feminist criticism, mainly concerns her theory with the struggle of the minority (the colonized or the females) against the oppression and injustice of the dominant system of power, which denies them an identity through which, they would assert themselves as dynamic agents who can act in history, rather than being acted upon. The aim of this study is to analyze the ways by which the female characters of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, are objectified as groups rather than individuals, and in Spivak’s words, subalterns who have no voice and their identity is affected by the ideological system of power. The researcher eventually indicates that the subaltern, though being silenced, would find her own way to assert her subjectivity. 

Keywords:

Female othering , Oppression , Postcolonial studies