Breaking the closure through language: the representation of oppression and resistance in Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Tale and Ursula K. Le Guin's the telling

Abstract

This study aims to demonstrate how oppression and resistance are represented on the plane of language in the two examples of critical dystopias. The works that are chosen for detailed analysis are The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin. The study begins with a short survey of the most significant literary utopias and dystopias while simultaneously presenting the definitions and explaining the differences. In this respect, the transformation of the utopian and the dystopian genre through time is also delineated with the help of the comments of various utopian and dystopian critics. Then, the two novels are analyzed to illustrate the qualities that render them the examples of critical dystopias. The discourse of the hegemonic order is juxtaposed with the stories of the main characters which they tell in order to resist the closure of the regime. In the course of the analysis, Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the “authoritative word” and Julia Kristeva’s “poetic logic” are employed to support the ideas presented. The manipulation of history and memory as well as the possibilities that the novels provide in terms of active political resistance is also included in accordance with the concerns of the critical dystopias.