The Language Of Naming, Silence, And Control: A Postmodern Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis Of Handmaid'S Tale
Abstract
This study examines the discursive process of naming, silencing and control in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale by applying the Postmodern Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It draws on poststructuralist feminist ideas, such as Butler's notion of gender performativity and Foucault's theory of discourse and power, and is grounded in Norman Fairclough's model of CDA which has three dimensions: the social, the cultural, and the linguistic. The study uses a qualitative approach, examining certain textual excerpts from the novel based on the following aspects: naming practice, limited communication, religious discourse, surveillance language, and narrative resistance. The analysis is organized at three levels: Textual, Discursive and Social level, the goal being to reveal the way the linguistic decision processes reflect and perpetuate the power relations of patriarchy. The results show that naming is a technique of erasure and ownership, that silence is a technique of imposed control and an internalized technique of control, and that religious discourse is a technique of legitimation which seeks to naturalise gender oppression. Additionally, surveillance discourse fosters self-regulation and mental control, and the power of narration becomes a subtle weapon of insurrection against hegemonic forms of ideology. The study finds that use of language in The Handmaid's Tale is both oppressive and resistant, revealing an unstable nature of power and identity in a patriarchal system. The research also offers insights for feminist literary criticism and CDA by revealing the importance of the role of discourse in shaping gendered subjectivities and maintaining the ideological control and the possibility of the discursive to question and challenge oppressive structures.
Keywords: Postmodern Feminist CDA, The Handmaid’s Tale, Discourse and Power, Gender Performativity, Naming and Silencing, Surveillance and Control through Language, Narrative Resistance.
