As relações de poder entre as mulheres em o Conto da Aia de Margaret Atwood

Abstract

The Handmaid's tale, translated to portuguese as O conto da Aia, is a dystopia published for the first time in 1985 by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. The novel fictionalizes, among other issues, the power relations in Gilead, a theocratic and totalitarian nation, which in the past had been the United States of America and where the most basic rights of women were abolished. The narrative also portrays the power relations among women, showing that Gilead's oppressive and patriarchal system does not affect them in the same way. These relationships are narrated by the main character, the handmaid Offred, whose mental screen serves as the background for the narrative. Thus, to understand Offred's mental work and how the power relations that permeate that society affect her psyche, we will undertake a study on the techniques of the stream of consciousness (HUMPHREY, 1976). Then, we will present discussions about the functioning of power relations (FOUCAULT, 1976, 1979, 1985; MILLETT, 2000) and the concepts of place of speech (RIBEIRO, 2017; SPIVAK, 2010) as issues related to these discussions and necessary for the understanding of differences among women. In this sense, we also propose reflections on the difference in the social positions occupied by women (LAURETIS, 1994) and how these positions originate different processes of female subalternization (SPIVAK, 2010). Given this difference of social conditions that is configured in privileges and disadvantages, we will present discussions about the power relations among women (BIROLI, 2018). Based on these theoretical discussions we will make an analysis of the power relations that permeate the narrative