Archetypes and the heroine's journey in dystopian literature: The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments and Before She Sleeps

The concepts of archetype and the hero archetype have always been in the focus of literary critics in the World Literature. From the past to the present, these concepts have similarly and differently been repeated by the authors in different geographies, at different times and in various literary texts. The concepts of archetype and the hero archetype have also been used in dystopian literature emerged to demonstrate today's technological, economic and political problems. Thus, within the framework of literary history, it is important how these concepts, which also have existed in dystopian literature, are represented. In this context, the novels of Margaret Atwood and Bina Shah, two distinguished representatives of dystopian literature, have been discussed in this study. Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments and Shah's Before She Sleeps have been compared and contrasted in the context of archetypal literary criticism and variation theory. The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the archetypal situations, symbols and characters in these novels in terms of the concept of archetype, which Carl Gustav Jung described as common unconscious images, and to make a comparative analysis on how these archetypes are represented in dystopian literature. Additionally, the secondary aim of the study is to discuss the similarities and differences in the concept of the hero archetype by examining the heroines in these novels in the context of the woman's quest for wholeness, which Maureen Murdock explains as the heroine's journey. Bearing these purposes in mind, the study consists of four main sections following the introduction. The first section of the study includes the conceptual framework that includes the main features of dystopian literature. The second section covers the methodological framework with the basic principles of archetypal criticism. Accordingly, the concept of archetype and the hero archetype are discussed in all aspects from the perspective of the archetypal literary criticism. The third section of the study contains the theoretical framework describing the characteristics of variation theory. In this section, some fundamental theories used in comparative literature are argued, the factors leading the variation theory, which is a new and different theory in the comparative literature are discussed, and also the main arguments of this theory are listed. The chief motive behing using this theory in this study is that the authors who are the subject of the study belong to different countries and include both similar and different uses in terms of the concept of archetype and the hero archetype in their novels. In this respect, the novels of these two different authors are compared and contrasted in terms of form and content. Therefore, in the conceptual, methodological and theoretical sections of the study, some definitions and explanations are demonstrated, and the background information of the study are presented in order to analyse the novels. In the fourth and last section of the study, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Testaments and Bina Shah's Before She Sleeps are analyzed in the context of archetypal literary criticism. It is questioned what the common archetypes in each novel are and what they mean. Right along with this, the heroines' journeys in the novels are also analyzed in detail. In addition, a comparison of these novels are presented under the light of variation theory. In the analysis of these novels by different authors, both similar and different elements have been observed and discussed. In the conclusion section, a comprehensive evaluation is made by allowing a general summary of the explanations, discussions and arguments in the previous sections of the study. All these considered, it might be argued that there are both similar and different elements in terms of the concepts of archetype and the heroine's journey in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments and Bina Shah's Before She Sleeps in dystopian literature.