Читать книгу Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 163

Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale is often described as a work of speculative fiction, portraying events in the USA – renamed Gilead – following environmental catastrophe and civil war. American society is subjected to the rule of a strict theocratic dictatorship rooted in a very specific and fundamentalist reading of the Bible. In Gilead, gender roles are clearly defined and brutally established, with new social categories created that shape the lives of all individuals. The book was the source for a television series which, as of 2019, was in its third season (and moved beyond the novel). Read the book and/or watch at least one season of the series.

Many people have interpreted this work as a feminist novel on account of the stark power imbalance between men and women and the ways in which women at the bottom of the hierarchy still find novel ways of resisting the system. However, there are other sociological themes in the story. In particular, as you read/watch, take notes on the central theoretical issues introduced earlier of consensus versus conflict and structure versus agency.

1 Following Marx’s ideas on class conflict, what would you say is the central organizing conflict in Gilead society? In what ways is this conflictual society held together and presented as consensual? Is there any theoretically deduced contradiction within Gilead that might eventually lead to a social revolution from within?

2 Write a 1,000-word essay applying either Giddens’s structuration theory, Elias’s ideas on figurations, or Durkheim’s concept of social institutions and social facts to Atwood’s Gilead. Take account of the extensive militarization of this society, which social categories offer the best prospects for individual agency, and whether these are entirely male-dominated.