Bakhtin’s Dialogism as a Discursive Means of Resistance against Manipulated Gendered Spaces in Margaret Atwood’s TheHandmaid’sTale (1985) and Oryx and Crake (2003)
AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 4, Number2. May 2020 Pp. 120-128
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol4no2.9
Bakhtin’s Dialogism as a Discursive Means of Resistance against Manipulated Gendered
Spaces in Margaret Atwood’s TheHandmaid’sTale (1985) and Oryx and Crake (2003)
SELT Djihad Afaf
Department of English
University of Sidi Belabes ,Algeria
Kaid fatiha BERRAHAL
Department of English
École Normal Supérieur (ENS), Oran
Abstract:
At the peak of the spatial turn, space and gender have become critical notions that have a direct influence on the social construction of nations. In this vein, Lefebvre identifies space as a physical entity that has a mental representation. He affirms that the physical space is the outcome of a set of values and experiences that reproduce society. Nevertheless, the mental space results from the power relations embedded within the physical one. The manipulation of these spaces produces a gendered one in which women are considered inferiors. This paper investigates the interplay between gender and space production along with the power relations they entail. It examines how this manipulation stimulates resistance precisely through discourse in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid Tale (1985) and Oryx and Crake (2003). The research is carried out on Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism as a theoretical frame, relying on a combination of analytical as well as descriptive methods. This article concludes that gendered spaces are being manipulated by religious doctrines as well as corrupt political structures that aim to relegate females to marginal spaces in favor of their male counterparts.
Keywords:Bakhtin’s dialogism, gendered space, Margaret Atwood,Oryx and Crake, The Handmaid’s Tale
Cite as: SELT, D. A. , & BERRAHAL, K. F. (2020). Bakhtin’s Dialogism as a Discursive Means of Resistance against Manipulated Gendered Spaces in Margaret Atwood’s TheHandmaid’sTale (1985) and Oryx and Crake (2003). Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 4 (2) 120-128. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol4no2.9
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