Pink Tickets and Feathered Frocks : Sexual Politics in Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We" and Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"

Abstract

Dystopian novels generally depict totalitarian or oligarchic societies that undertake to control the individual through the manipulation of sexuality, procreation, family life, and gender roles. This thesis compares the sexual motifs and gender implications of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, two dystopian novels written near the beginning and the end of the twentieth century, respectively. The nature of the twentieth-century dystopia as a genre is explored and the place of each novel within this genre is assessed. The writer then turns to an explication of the sexual systems presented within each novel as well as the form of sexual rebellion that is undertaken by the protagonists as they resist the control of the state. The states' attempts to control language and the role of writing or composing as a subversive strategy on the part of the protagonists are also explored. Finally, the writer investigates the stylistic and linguistic similarities between the novels by comparing the authors' use of symbolism and imagery to portray the fractured nature of the protagonists' suppressed psyches. Ultimately, the writer concludes that stylistic and thematic similarities between the novels support the assertion that We is indeed a source for The Handmaid's Tale and that the comparison of a classic dystopian text written by a male author with what has become a later classic dystopian text written by a female author is a fruitful endeavour. The writer suggests that further comparative studies of this nature will be beneficial to the area of gender and genre studies.