Totaliteryan feminist distopyalar olarak Atwood'un The Handmaid's Tale ve The Testaments

Historically, totalitarian regimes use the freedoms that democracy offers and exploit these civic rights to manipulate their citizens with an oppressive ideology. Totalitarian regimes are patriarchal in their essences, for among their targets to oppress women take the lead. After having "total control," these patriarchally-based regimes expect to create an idealized version of women whose would only be responsible for domestic work. Literature often addresses issues pertaining to lives destroyed under such regimes. Some authors have raised their voices not only to give voice to individuals who were abused by the totalitarian domination of patriarchy but also to warn their readers about the possibility of a change towards totalitarianism because of the indifference of citizens. Likewise, in order to alert her readers Margaret Atwood created a dystopian state called Gilead which is ruled by a totalitarian authority. The order in Gilead regime is regulated by the Commanders and the Aunts, their female inferiors, who are in charge of keeping the order among women. The authority limits freedoms in every facet of life, both public and private. The isolated and lonely individuals, or the mass, are forced to believe in the fiction formed in accordance with the totalitarian ideology: reality is distorted, murders are called sacrifices for the sake of one's country and a new "normal" is created in which individuals are so atomized that all sense of belonging is destroyed. This dissertation aims at providing an insight into the analysis of women as the primary target of totalitarian domination while examining the formation of the Gilead government.