The Handmaid's Tale: Teaching Dystopia, Feminism, and Resistance Across Disciplines and Borders

(Hardback)

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The Handmaid's Tale: Teaching Dystopia, Feminism, and Resistance across Disciplines and Borders offers an interdisciplinary analysis of how Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, as well as its film and television adaptations, can be employed across different academic fields in high school, college and university classrooms. Scholars from a variety of disciplines and cultural contexts contribute to wide-ranging analytical strategies, ranging from religion and science to the role of journalism in democracy, while still embracing gender studies in a broader methodological and theoretical framework. The volume examines both the formal and stylistic ways in which Atwood's classic work and its adaptations can be brought to life in the classroom through different lenses and pedagogies.

Reviews

In an age where savage neoliberalism, climate change denial and lack of consideration for basic human rights seem bent on imposing their logic over the Western world, The Handmaid's Tale: Teaching Dystopia, Feminism, and Resistance Across Disciplines and Borders, edited by Karen A. Ritzenhoff and Janis L. Goldie, is a staunch confirmation of the relevance not only of Margaret Atwoods 1985 The Handmaids Tale, but of dystopian fiction in general. Offering multiple entries into the novel and its two adaptations through a wide array of methodologies (adaptation studies, criminology, cultural studies, etc.), this book is an ideal companion for a class on The Handmaid's Tale or the relationship between feminism and popular culture. -- David Roche, Universit Toulouse - Jean Jaurs
Who would have thought that The Handmaids Tale would become a 'how-to' manual for contemporary existence But if thats where we are today, then this book is an essential 'how-to' manual for understanding not only The Handmaids Tale, but the dystopia that has become our reality. -- Dahlia Schweitzer, Author of Going Viral: Zombies, Viruses, and the End of the World
A truly interdisciplinary, extremely timely and a thorough study of what has already become a canonical text about womens visibility and voice. This book is a great addition to feminist television studies and an excellent volume on the teaching feminism as activism. The chapters in the volume cleverly situate The Handmaids Tale in the context of #MeToo and #timesup, and remind us once again that as academics, we are change agents. -- Eylem Atakav, The University of East Anglia
This anthology offers teachers a brilliant and brave resource that is vital to help students address challenging topics in the classroom. Taking The Handmaids Tale as its starting point and interweaving analysis of narratives in literature, film and television it tackles some of the most pressing social issues of our time with diligence, intersectional awareness, and ethical consideration. Throughout the book, readers will find a broad range of interdisciplinary approaches that encompass the past, as well as the speculative future, of The Handmaids Tale. -- Rebecca Harrison, University of Glasgow

Author Bio

Karen A. Ritzenhoff is professor in the Department of Communication at Central Connecticut State University. Janis L. Goldie is associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Huntington/Laurentian University.