Browsing by Author "Agramunt Tobar, Ashley Susan"

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    An analysis of the experiences of authority and resistance for characters and readers in the handmaid’s tale (1985) and the testaments (2019) by Margaret Atwood.
    (Universidad de Playa Ancha Ciencias de la Educación, 2024) Agramunt Tobar, Ashley Susan; Ferrada Aguilar, Héctor Andrés; Femenino; Facultad de Humanidades; Universidad de Playa Ancha Ciencias de la Educación
    The goal of this research is to analyze the extent to which Atwood provides the experience of totalitarianism to both her characters and readers as well as the possibility of a permeable structure as a counterbalance to the aforementioned system that would allow an escape for both. To facilitate this goal, four objectives have been decided upon. First, to describe the totalitarian characteristics present in both of Atwood's novels that would enable a totalitarian experience for her characters problematization of the dystopian discourse within Atwood's narrative space. Second, to examine how readers might be subjected to a similar type of control as the characters in the novels. Third, to describe the acts of resistance demonstrated by the characters. Fourth, to examine how readers may counteract authorial control. To this end, we work with the concept of dystopia and its different theoretical approaches; the concept of totalitarianism with a focus on the different mechanisms used in state domination and control; and Wolfgang Iser's aesthetics of reception and its connection to authority. As a result of the research, strategies and techniques of totalitarian control as well as acts of resistance are evidenced in both texts. In addition, Atwood's narrative provides textual cues that, while not as extreme as the regime presented in her novels, influence the reader's imagination. That is, the way a reader reacts to a text and arrives at a potential meaning from her experience with it is not arbitrary. However, this influence is limited and ultimately readers are encouraged to recognize and embrace their own interpretive agency.