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A Heteropian Novel: Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

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Abstract (2. Language): 
Margaret Atwood, Dam›zl›k K›z›n Öyküsü’nde1 bask›n›n hem totaliter (bütüncül) hem de bask›ya direnen do¤as›n› betimlemek için belirgin postmodern stratejiler kullanm›flt›r. Atwood’un eseri kad›nlar›n kendi kiflisel bilinçleri için uyand›¤›, ataerkil sosyal düzen ile bafla ç›kmaya çal›flt›¤› ve kendi aralar›ndaki iliflkileri biçimlendirdi¤i hayali bir ülkeyi ele almaktad›r. Di¤er bir deyiflle, Atwood kendi ütopyas›n› göz önüne sermifltir. Bu, feminist bir söylem olarak, onun (kad›n›n)-topyas›d›r. Bir bak›ma, Atwood’un kitab› nda kurdu¤u düzen, Foucault’nun tan›mlad›¤› gibi, uzam› iliflkisel, heterojen ve ucu aç›k olarak yeniden kavramsallaflt›ran bir heterotopyad›r.2 Ütopya ve distopya (karfl› utopia) ile k›yasland›¤›nda, heteropik romanlar göz ard› edilmifl konular› veya mükemmel bir flekilde düzenlenmifl bir toplumun hicivsel tersten okunmas›n› ifllerler. Kad›nlar›n bak›fl aç›lar›ndan tarif edilen feminist heterotopik metinler, kad›nlar için ideal olan ve ayr›ca s›n›fland›r›lm›fl, ›rkç› ve kültürel ötekiye yer vermeyen toplumlar› ça¤r›flt›rmaktad›rlar. Bu yaz›nlar, “ütopya ve distopyay›…farkl› iki kutuptan ziyade etkileflimli yar›m küreler olarak birlefltirerek ve melezlefltirerek”4 okuyucular›n› beslemektedirler. Bu da, Mohr’a göre, bu yaz›nlar›n “s›n›rlar› afl›lm›fl, yeni boflluklar› ve karfl›l›kl› iliflkileri olan alternatif bir dünya” yaratmak için “ütopya ve distopyan› n kurulu olan çift mant›¤›n›” elefltirdi¤i, baltalad›¤› ve s›n›rlar›n› bozdu¤u anlam›na gelmektedir.5 Dam› zl›k K›z›n Öyküsü’nde, heterotopik roman biçiminde, Atwood birbirleriyle z›tl›k içerisinde olan cinsiyetçi bak›fl aç›lar›n› ve yaklafl›mlar›n› tek bir çat› alt›na toplayabilmek için ütopya ve distopya aras›ndaki farkl› l›¤› çözümlendirmifltir. Bu çal›flman›n amac› da Dam›zl›k K›z›n Öyküsü adl› roman› heterotopik bir roman olarak incelemektir.
Abstract (Original Language): 
Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale uses explicit postmodern strategies to characterize both the totalitarian nature of oppression as well as the resistance against it. Her writing deals with an imaginary land where women wake up to their self-consciousness, to struggle with the patriarchal social order, and to forge connections among themselves. In a way, Atwood envisions her utopia. This her-topia (a feminist discourse) is in fact a heterotopia which is the term used by Foucault to re-conceptualize space as relational, heterogeneous, and open-ended. 3 Compared with utopia and dystopia, heterotopian novels explore issues neglected or satirical reversal of a perfectly regulated society. Depicted from the perspective of women, feminist heterotopian texts call for societies that are ideal for women and also not the classed, racial, and cultural other. They motivate their readers by “merging and hybridizing utopia and dystopia…as interactive hemispheres rather than distinct poles.”4 That is to say, they “criticize, undermine, and transgress the established binary logic of classical utopia and dystopia” to create “an alternative world of transgressions, of new interstices and interrelations.”5 In The Handmaid’s Tale, in the form of the heterotopian novel, Atwood dissolves the division between utopia and dystopia to incorporate conflicting gender perspectives and concerns and the main aim of this paper is to analyze The Handmaid’s Tale as a heterotopian nove
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REFERENCES

References: 

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale (London: Vintage Books, 1996).
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Foucault, Michel. “Of Other Spaces”: Texts/Contexts Section of Diacritics, 16/1 (1986), pp.16-17.
Mohr, Dunja M. Worlds Apart? Dualism and Transgression in Contemporary Female Dystopias
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