本論文旨在探討瑪格麗特．愛特伍德(Margaret Atwood)反烏托邦小說《女僕的故事》(The Handmaid’s Tale)中，女性身處父權社會性別制度下所遭受的壓迫，與女性在此男性主導的社會中的抵抗。身為一女性主義作家，愛特伍德非常關注於《女僕的故事》中她所刻意突顯有關性別的議題。在我的論文中，我運用了一些激進女性主義者和法國女性主義者的理論，如米列、芮曲、麥金能、西蘇。這些女性主義者皆致力於研究性別的議題。米列關注於父權造成女性壓迫附屬的地位。芮曲和麥金能著重於闡明女性在父權的性別不平等中，女性的母職與性(sexuality)如何受到掌控與壓迫的事實。而西蘇則指出藉由創造女性的文本，性別(gender)具有其特殊的流動性(fluidity)，而女性是可藉此文本，進而定義女性的自我(selfhood)，並形成反抗的聲音。
本論文共有五章。序論呈現了關於作者與《女僕的故事》的背景資料、此論文的動機、《女僕的故事》與這些女性主義者理論之間的呼應。第一章分析了經由社會化所形成不平等的性別權力關係，造成女性附屬於男性的地位。再則，由於女性附屬的地位，透過社會母職制度化的經驗，女性被歸類為母親的角色。如吉利國(Gilead)中的太太們與女僕。第二章進一步分析女性是如何經由社會異性戀制度中物化的經驗，被形塑成性客體的角色。如吉利國中的情婦與娼妓。第三章討論《女僕的故事》中，女性的聲音如何賦予女性力量以致抵抗她們的父權社會。女主角歐芙芮德(Offred)藉由說故事聲音書寫的方式抵抗父權的壓迫，找回失去的身體與自我，使自己從此性別制度下的犧牲者，蛻變成女性的英雄。此外，她以聲音書寫的行為，也反映了女性在一個只有男性能主宰文字的文化中，所需重建女性被壓迫的歷史。歐芙芮德以聲音說故事，對讀者來說，便是代表著她的反抗去重建女性被壓迫的歷史。結論一章將《女僕的故事》綜合了愛特伍德及前述女性主義研究者的觀點，以完整地突顯出在性別的機制下，女性所受的壓迫與反抗的聲音。本論文希望能藉此文本及理論的探討，研究並釐清由社會所建構出的男性統治世界其本質與運作及對女性的壓迫。由此，進而探索作者所構思出的反抗手法以及聲音書寫，並討論蘊藏在此聲音書寫中的意義與重要性。

This thesis explores the oppression of women within the gender institution of patriarchy in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, and their resistance to this male-dominated society. As a feminist writer, Atwood is very much concerned about the issue of gender, which she foregrounds in The Handmaid’s Tale. In my analysis, I apply some theories of radical feminists and the French feminist who devote themselves to the study of gender--Kate Millett, Adrienne Rich, Catherine MacKinnon, and Hélène Cixous. Millett focuses on women’s subordinated position that leads to women’s oppression in patriarchy. Rich and MacKinnon focus on how women are controlled and oppressed in maternity and sexuality within the patriarchal society of gender inequality. Cixous challenges the validity of gender by pointing out its characteristic fluidity through creating woman’s own writing in order to redefine female selfhood for women’s resistance.
The thesis is composed of five chapters. The Introduction presents the background materials about Atwood and The Handmaid’s Tale, the motivation of the thesis, and the resonance between The Handmaid’s Tale and certain feminists’ theories. The first chapter analyzes the formation of the unbalanced power relations between the sexes in which women are subordinated to men through the socialization. Moreover, because of women’s subordination, women are modulated as mothers through socially institutionalized motherhood such as the Wives and the Handmaids in Gilead. The second chapter further analyzes how women are formulated as sexual objects through the experience of sexual objectification within the institution of heterosexuality, such as the mistresses and the prostitutes of Gilead. The third chapter discusses how female orality empowers women to resist their patriarchal society in The Handmaid’s Tale. The protagonist Offred, by “writing her voice” through storytelling, resists patriarchal oppression, restores her body and self, and transforms herself from a victim in a claustrophobic world of male domination to a heroine of femininity. Moreover, her act of writing by her voice also reflects women’s histories of repression, which should be reconstructed in a culture in which only males are literate. Offred’s oral act of storytelling, to the reader, may also signify her resistance to reconstruct women’s repressed histories. The concluding chapter reiterates the research of The Handmaid’s Tale with a synthesis of Atwood’s and some of the prominent feminists’ points of view, namely Millett’s, Rich’s, MacKinnon’s and Cixous’s, toward the oppression and resistance of women within the institution of gender. This study hopes to explore and thus illuminate the nature, the functioning, the operation of socially constructed male domination, and then proceed to search the possible solution, or the “voice;” however feeble it is, the author, or the protagonist conceives to defy the oppression imposed on women.

Introduction.....1
Chapter One: The Oppression of Women in Maternity.....23
Chapter Two: The Oppression of Female Sexuality and the Limitations of Love.....47
Chapter Three: Women’s Resistance through Their Own Voice: Women’s Bodies, Selves, and Histories.....65
Conclusion.....82
Works Cited.....85

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