CRITICISM

Conboy, Shelia C. “Scripted, Conscripted, and Circumscribed: Body Language in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.” In Anxious Power: Reading, Writing, and Ambivalence in Narrative by Women, edited by Carol J. Singley and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, pp. 349-62. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993.

Examines the use of language to convey aspects of entrapment, desire, self-identity, and the objectification of the female body in The Handmaid's Tale.

Cooper, Pamela. “Sexual Surveillance and Medical Authority in Two Versions of The Handmaid's Tale.” Journal of Popular Culture 28, No. 4 (Spring 1995): 49-66.

Discusses the sinister elements of political, sexual, and medical surveillance in The Handmaid's Tale,and the ironic duplication of such themes in the novel's film version.

Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. “Mothers Tomorrow and Mothers Yesterday, But Never Mothers Today: Woman on the Edge of Time and The Handmaid's Tale.” In Narrating Mothers: Theorizing Maternal Subjectivities, edited by Brenda O. Daly and Maureen T. Reddy, pp. 21-43. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1991.

Examines the significance of maternal loss and the ideology of reproduction, motherhood, and female identity in Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

Kauffman, Linda S. “Twenty-first Century Epistolarity in The Handmaid's Tale.” In Special Delivery: Epistolary Modes in Modern Fiction, pp. 221-62. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Discusses the problem of female voice in contemporary literature and deconstructs elements of ideological, feminist, and postmodern discourse in The Handmaid's Tale.

Keith, W. J. “Apocalyptic Imaginations: Notes on Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage.” Essays on Canadian Literature 35 (Winter 1987): 123-34.

Offers comparative analysis of Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage, noting their shared Canadian and postmodern perspectives.

Klarer, Mario. “Orality and Literacy as Gender-Supporting Structures in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 28, No. 4 (December 1995): 129-42.

Discusses interconnected aspects of oral and written communication in The Handmaid's Tale in terms of contemporary feminist and textual analysis.

Montelaro, Janet J. “Maternity and the Ideology of Sexual Difference in The Handmaid's Tale.” LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory 6, Nos. 3-4 (December 1995): 233-56.

Examines patriarchal constructions of female identity and the objectification and oppression of women in The Handmaid's Tale.

Myhal, Bob. “Boundaries, Centers, and Circles: The Postmodern Geometry of The Handmaid's Tale.” LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory 6, Nos. 3-4 (December 1995): 213-31.

Discusses the textual and metaphorical significance of physical, psychological, and geographic limitations in The Handmaid's Tale.

Stein, Karen F. “Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale: Scheherazade in Dystopia.” University of Toronto Quarterly 61, No. 2 (Winter 1991): 269-79.

Examines postmodern aspects of Offred's narrative in The Handmaid's Tale and its function as a mode of feminist critique and appropriation of male discourse.

Templin, Charlotte. “Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.” The Explicator 49, No. 4 (Summer 1991): 255-6.

Attempts to place the date of the setting in The Handmaid's Tale.

Van Gelder, Lindsy. “Margaret Atwood.” Ms. XV, No. 7 (January 1987): 49-50, 90.

Discusses the political themes of The Handmaid's Tale and Atwood's Canadian and feminist perspectives.

Additional coverage of Atwood's life and career is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Vol. 12; Bestsellers, 1989:2; Contemporary Authors, Vols. 49-52; Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vols. 3, 24, 33, 59; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 53; DISCovering Authors 3.0; DISCovering Authors; DISCovering Authors: British; DISCovering Authors: Canadian; DISCovering Authors Modules: Most-Studied, Novelists, Poets; Major 20th-Century Writers, Vols. 1, 2; Poetry Criticism, Vol. 8; Short Story Criticism, Vol. 2; Something About the Author, Vol. 50; and World Literature Criticism.