These books and poems give the women of the Odyssey a say and other new perspectives on the classic tale.
Activists defending women’s rights to choose abortion dress up as characters from Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ at the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington, in October 2020.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Before and after abortion was decriminalized in Canada in 1969, fiction has explored how abortion intersects with cultural imaginings about women’s bodies and humanity’s future.
Margaret Atwood’s new fireproof copy of The Handmaid’s Tale protests book banning – and burning. The Venn diagram of those who burn books and those who read them is typically two separate circles.
Hulu’s ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 4 envisions escapes to Canada that draw on 19th century abolitionist narratives, yet the show doesn’t acknowledge race.
(Hulu/YouTube)
Canada has produced Nobel Prize winners in the arts and sciences. With several recent awards, Canadian talent still has the potential for future achievements.
In ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray,’ the protagonist remains youthful while a portrait of him ages.
(Shutterstock)
In Oscar Wilde’s novel, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray,’ a painted portrait of the protagonist becomes ugly and twisted with age, much like Trump is represented as reflecting all of America’s evils.
Top selection: the 2020 Booker Prize longlist.
Booker Prize
‘Dystopia’ is a term that’s gained popularity during the coronavirus pandemic. But it’s not a synonym for ‘a bad time,’ and a government’s poor handling of a crisis does not constitute dystopia.
The role of women in futuristic drama TV series ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ makes references to Darwin’s writings on evolution.
(Shutterstock)
In the television show ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ Charles Darwin’s ‘Descent of Man’ makes a cameo — and its appearance makes a comment on how Gilead functions.
Nick Chater, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
We all like to think of ourselves as heroes. But according to science, the vast majority of us wouldn’t be prepared to rebel against totalitarian rulers.
Margaret Atwood’s handmaid has become a symbol of the subjugation of women. Anchorites were the medieval equivalent: women who were literally bricked up to keep them chaste.
Tens of thousands of students march in Sydney, Australia in March 2019 to demand action on climate change.
(Shutterstock)
Margaret Atwood’s classic novel imagined a society where women had almost no power. Hundreds of people gathered in Sydney yesterday to hear Atwood speak about dystopias – fictional and otherwise.
In the much awaited second season of the TV series, Offred is more openly defiant than she was in Margaret Atwood’s novel. Still, the first two episodes remain true to the themes of Atwood’s book.