Investigating Feminist Tendency in Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” In Terms of Sara Mills’ Model. A Feminist Stylistic Study

Abstract

This paper purports to explore the relationship between linguistic structures and socially construed meanings in a narrative text. A stylistic analysis is conducted to unravel the design agilities of Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale”. It tries to investigate her stylistic traits whereby much of the time her words seem to cloak or obscure what really happened. By adopting Sara Mill’s Model, the researcher attempts to reveal the ideology and power relations that underpin a literary text from different levels (according to the model) word, phrase, and discourse. The evidence seems to be strong that the model, however, has identifiable functions which contribute to the effective meaning of the novel. On this basis, it may be inferred that these elements trigger and play significant roles in passing the intention of the writer across.