“No Shadow Unless There is Also Light”: Margaret Atwood’s Dystopia as a Vehicle for Anger and Hope in Feminist Resistance

Abstract

This thesis explores the current relationship between dystopian narratives and abortion politics in the United States with a focus on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Opposition to abortion seems to be fundamentally entangled in religious belief and misogyny, and opponents of abortion are shamelessly basing their arguments on emotion, misinformation, and fearmongering. Throughout this thesis, I argue that the abortion debate is inherently emotional, that emotions are vital for resisting oppression and injustice, and that dystopian narratives can be vehicles for powerful emotions like anger and hope. I discuss Atwood’s relationship with feminism and trace how her novel has been read by scholars. My theoretical grounding is Sarah Ahmed’s theory on emotions and feminist attachment. In this thesis, I view abortion care through the lens of reproductive justice, a framework that places abortion alongside other central issues of injustice and oppression.