"We Learned to Whisper Almost Without Sound"
la commistione dei confini tra narrazione e realtà documentaria in The Handmaid’s Tale di Margaret Atwood
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4454/syn.v3.541Parole chiave:
The Handmaid's Tale, Fact, Fiction, History, Dystopian-speculative fictionAbstract
Scopo di questo articolo è esaminare come la commistione dei confini tra narrazione e realtà documentaria in Margaret Atwood sia un meccanismo chiave alla base della costruzione letteraria di The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). Traendo spunto dalle affermazioni dell’autrice sull’impronta documentaria del suo romanzo distopico-speculativo, questa indagine fa luce sui riferimenti sotterranei a figure storiche, eventi e fenomeni cruciali che è possibile cogliere all’interno di The Handmaid’s Tale. Dalla Germania nazista alla Romania di Nicolae Ceauşescu, passando per l’Iran dell’Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini o l’America degli anni Ottanta, Atwood ha evidentemente tratto ispirazione da accadimenti storici per poi trasfigurarli nel suo memorabile ritratto dello stato futurista di Gilead. La lettura in questa prospettiva di The Handmaid’s Tale darà prova della capacità dell’opera di attuare una negoziazione con il dominio extratestuale al fine di veicolare un potente messaggio ammonitorio.
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