O protagonismo da mulher em The Handmaid's Tale: a luta contra o patriarcado e a religiosidade presentes em Gilead

Abstract

When Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale, in 1985, she was based on historical moments that occurred before and during that decade and, mainly, on the fact that the feminine and feminist protests that wanted autonomy to decide about their lives and their bodies. Therefore, this book brought and brings significant points to be debated today, considering that women continue in the search for equality. In this work, we approach the role played by women in the history of humanity and in society, the creation of patriarchy, which subjects women to machismo present in everyday life and in all environments to which they belong, and how religiosity is used to maintain and validate this masculine dominion over her, based on the sacred scriptures and speeches that propagate and perpetuate these customs. All these points are observed in the Republic of Gilead, where Atwood's dystopian novel takes place. Gerda Lerner (2019), Heleieth Saffioti (1987), Simone de Beauvoir (2019), Silvia Federici (2017) and Pierre Bourdieu (2010) are some of the names that serve as a theoretical reference for our research and are related to the mentioned themes. As this is a qualitative, exploratory, documental, and bibliographic work, we found that, despite being a literary work, traces of this new world described by Margaret Atwood still exist in the 21st century and are once again gaining strength and space in our society, affirming the importance of this research to lead us to reflection.