11. Historical notes

• Engels
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• GCSE

Lesson objectives 

We will consider the historical notes and how they interact and change the message of the novel. 

We will consider what Atwood wished to highlight through this epilogue

 

Rate the word 1 to 4

1. I do not know the word, and I have never seen it before. 

2. I've heard or seen the word before, but I'm not sure what it means. 

3. I know the word and can recognise and understand it while reading, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable using it in writing or speech. 

4. I know the word well and can use it correctly in writing or speech. 

Malaise

Word of the day

Malaise (n) - a general feeling of being ill or having no energy, or an uncomfortable feeling that something is wrong, especially with society, and that you cannot change the situation:

To understand this word we can break down the morphological parts. We know that mal means "bad". The part aise (from French) is related to the English word ease = "ill at ease" 

The African Book Famine emerged as one depressing aspect of widespread educational malaise.

Morphology = is the study of words and their parts. Morphemes, like prefixes, suffixes and base words, are defined as the smallest meaningful units of meaning. 

Economic malaise

Historical notes 

1. In what year is the “Historical Notes” set?​
   
2. ​What is the name of the chairperson of the conference?​
   
3.  ​How is it revealed that Offred’s story has been recorded?​
   
4. ​Overall, what is Professor Pieixoto’s attitude to Offred and her account?​
5. What is the final line of the novel? ​

​

Historical notes 

1. 2195​

2. Professor Crescent Moon​

​3. Offred's story has been recorded onto a cassette tape​

​4.Professor Pieixoto is critical – for example, he bemoans that she did not act more like a spy or investigative journalist .

5. Any questions?​

The ‘historical notes’ section forms a sort of epilogue to the novel. In this section we learn that…​

​

In 2195, the Gileadean regime is long gone.​

Offred’s story was recorded on a series of 30 cassette tapes.​

These tapes were found in the bottom of a box and were not in the right order. The order was decided by scholars.​

Offred’s oral testimony was then transcribed by the academics and named by them ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in reference to Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales.​

Historical notes 

1. What information do we not learn? Could there be any differences in what Professor Pieixoto is interested in and what we, as the readers,  are interested in?​

​

3. What is the significance of this twist that the female narrative of novel has been mediated through the male scholars, and that the final voice we are left with in the narrative is a male one? ​

Historical notes 

Herstory is a term for history written from a feminist perspective, emphasizing the role of women, or told from a woman's point of view. The principal aim of herstory is to bring women out of alleged obscurity from the historical record.​

Herstory 

Herstory 

1. What does the lengthy section about the identity of the Commander tell us about Pieixoto’s priorities? 

2. In what way is Pieixoto’s agenda different from Offred’s?​

Amongst other things, Postmodern fiction seeks to tell the stories of those forgotten by conventional historical narratives.​

" From the point of view of future history we'll be invisible" 

1. In what ways does Handmaids fulfil this criteria?​

​2. In what way does Professor Pieixoto seem to repress this?​

Did our narrator reach the outside world safely and build a new life for herself? Or was she discovered in her attic hiding place, arrested, sent to the Colonies or to Jezebel’s, or even executed? Our document, though in its own way eloquent, is on these subjects mute. We may call Eurydice forth from the world of the dead, but we cannot make her answer; and when we turn to look at her we glimpse her only for a moment, before she slips from our grasp and flees. As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes. Voices may reach us from it; but what they say to us is imbued with the obscurity of the matrix out of which they come; and, try as we may, we cannot always decipher them precisely in the clearer light of our own day.​

​

Applause.​

​

Are there any questions?

Historical notes 

Orpheus was allowed to take Eurydice, from the land of the dead back to the world of life and light. Hades set one condition, however: upon leaving the land of death, both Orpheus and Eurydice were forbidden to look back. The couple climbed up toward the opening into the land of the living, and Orpheus, seeing the Sun again, turned back to share his delight with Eurydice. In that moment, she disappeared. (adapted Britannica encyclopedia)

These images of the ambiguity of history and of Offred being a Eurydice figure are the final thoughts Atwood presents to us.​

​

What do you think Atwood could be saying about the present?​

The ending is anticlimactic, as Atwood does not provide us with any sense of closure to Offred’s story, a character we have been invested in and wish to know the fate of, but equally there is a sense of hope, as Atwood portrays totalitarian states like Gilead as impermanent. 

​The world seems to have gone back to the way it was before, with academics discussing former (and darker) times, and Professor Crescent Moon, a woman, as evidence that women are again in positions of some authority.​

​

However…​

​Pieixoto’s address to the Gileadean studies conference seems to downplay and undermine much of what we valued about Offred’s narrative. ​

​

Choose 3 pieces of evidence to suggest that Pieixoto’s account is cold, detached and impersonal (as opposed to Offred’s emotional and personal testimony).

Concepts we generated: 

Power dynamics, oppression, patriarchy, identity, rebellion 

Concepts HL literature