Leiden University Student Repository

Kippersluis, Hannah van (2025)

Voices of Defiance: Resistance to authoritarianism in The Handmaid's Tale and On Tyranny

Master thesis | Literary Studies (MA)

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the most popular novels of the dystopian genre. Even though the novel was first published in 1985, its significance and popularity have increased since the 2016 U.S. elections. The novel highlights acts of resistance against a patriarchal authoritarian regime. The novel has become so popular that it now serves as a symbol of resistance in the contemporary cultural context. Another important text that serves as a tool for resistance is Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. The text, which explains to its readers how to resist modern authoritarianism through the ‘history repeats itself’ lens, carries a similar message to Atwood’s novel, albeit in a different format. The impact that both works have on contemporary culture, as well as the legacy of symbolism (The Handmaid’s Tale), highlights the ongoing significance of the written word. In this thesis, I argue that both works inspire their audiences to...Show moreMargaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the most popular novels of the dystopian genre. Even though the novel was first published in 1985, its significance and popularity have increased since the 2016 U.S. elections. The novel highlights acts of resistance against a patriarchal authoritarian regime. The novel has become so popular that it now serves as a symbol of resistance in the contemporary cultural context. Another important text that serves as a tool for resistance is Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. The text, which explains to its readers how to resist modern authoritarianism through the ‘history repeats itself’ lens, carries a similar message to Atwood’s novel, albeit in a different format. The impact that both works have on contemporary culture, as well as the legacy of symbolism (The Handmaid’s Tale), highlights the ongoing significance of the written word. In this thesis, I argue that both works inspire their audiences to actively resist the rise in authoritarianism in a post-2016 era in the US and specify how the works achieve this.Show less

The Handmaid's Tale, On Tyranny, authoritarianism, resistance

Author

Kippersluis, Hannah van

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

English Literature

Supervisors

Dr. Polak

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en