Offred's Thymotic Resistance in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
Drawing on Francis Fukuyama's notion of thymos or the "desire for recognition," this article aims to examine Offred's resistance in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985). Women categorised as the Handmaids live under the strict surveillance of the state of Gilead; deprived of their human righ...
| Publicado en: | Atlantis (0210-6124) Vol. 47; no. 2; pp. 253 - 270 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Departament de Llengues i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
Dec2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=190427077&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 190427077 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 02106124 VSM jtl: Atlantis (0210-6124) issn: 02106124 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2025 vid: 47 iid: 2 pid: 19799 pub: Departament de Llengues i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos artinfo: ui: 190427077 10.28914/Atlantis-2025-47.2.9 ppf: 253 ppct: 17 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 1.1MB tig: atl: Offred's Thymotic Resistance in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. aug: au: ZARGARZADEH, HALEH AVESTAN, SAMRAND affil: Assistant professor in the Department of English at Urmia University, Iran Ph.D. candidate and a Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas, USA su: Recognition (Philosophy) Fukuyama, Francis, 1952- Agent (Philosophy) Handmaid's Tale, The (Book : Atwood) Feminist criticism Novelists Human rights violations Narrators Fiction Patriarchy Atwood, Margaret, 1939- sug: subj: Recognition (Philosophy) Fukuyama, Francis, 1952- Agent (Philosophy) Handmaid's Tale, The (Book : Atwood) Feminist criticism Novelists Human rights violations Narrators Fiction Patriarchy Atwood, Margaret, 1939- keyword: discipline Francis Fukuyama Margaret Atwood Offred The Handmaid's Tale thymos disciplina ab: Drawing on Francis Fukuyama's notion of thymos or the "desire for recognition," this article aims to examine Offred's resistance in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985). Women categorised as the Handmaids live under the strict surveillance of the state of Gilead; deprived of their human rights, the state only values their body's fertile organs. The Handmaids' resistance to this demeaning reduction, particularly Offred's, has been mainly examined from feminist, dystopian or Foucauldian perspectives but not from Fukuyama's critical perspective. By examining Offred's perceptive insight and courage, this article argues that her strong thymotic urge is the primary impetus behind her defiance of Gilead. The findings suggest that by dismantling the Gileadean disciplinary codes sexually, emotionally, intellectually and above all aesthetically, Offred qualifies to become recognised as a full human being with diverse capacities. Her thymos gains her due recognition as an author and a historian and due respect for her fellow Handmaids who, despite the panoptic gaze they are subject to, share with each other a legacy of resistance. By deploying Fukuyama's concept of thymos in The Handmaid's Tale, it is hoped that this article will contribute to novel conceptions of the power-resistance dyad in Atwood's oeuvre and in resistance literature more broadly. Este artículo se propone analizar la resistencia ofrecida por Offred en The Handmaid's Tale de Margaret Atwood (1985) a partir de la noción thymos o "deseo de reconocimiento", según la desarrolla Francis Fukuyama. Las mujeres que ocupan la función de Criadas viven sometidas al escrutinio estricto del estado de Gilead; privadas de derechos humanos, el estado solo pone en valor sus órganos fértiles. La resistencia que ofrecen las Criadas--en particular Offred-- ante esta humillante interpretación reduccionista de su ser ha recibido atención académica desde los campos del feminismo y los estudios distópicos, así como desde una perspectiva foucaultiana, pero nunca se ha utilizado la perspectiva crítica ofrecida por Fukuyama. Este artículo analiza el valor y la perspicacia de Offred y propone que su fuerte instinto tímico es el impulso principal que la conduce a su desafío de Gilead. Los resultados sugieren que el hecho de que Offred cuestione los códigos disciplinares sexuales, emocionales, intelectuales y, por encima de todo, estéticos, permite que se la perciba como un ser humano completo, poseedor de capacidades variadas. Su thymos le procura a ella reconocimiento como autora e historiadora y a sus compañeras Criadas el merecido respeto. Estas, a pesar de estar sometidas a un escrutinio panóptico, consiguen construir un legado de resistencia. Al aplicar el concepto de thymos, según entendido por Fukuyama, a The Handmaid's Tale, se espera que este artículo contribuya a la emergencia de perspectivas noveles en torno al binomio resistencia-poder tanto en la obra de Atwood como en la literatura de resistencia en general. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Atlantis (0210-6124) is the property of Departament de Llengues i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Atlantis (0210-6124) holder: Departament de Llengues i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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