What: An approximately 10-12 page researched essay that investigates, researches, and advances an issue-based thesis argument about some topic developed from and inspired by the events of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
Context
We’re just beginning to unearth the eerily rich resonances between The Handmaid’s Tale and our current moment—Gilead’s near-future totalitarian ethos can’t help but point up some of the more recent authoritarian cadences of the last (**ahem) few years. The novel’s gender, body, and sexual politics also hit uncomfortably close, as Offred’s and the other Handmaids’ situation(s) harbinger possible changes in the Supreme Court’s tenor towards Roe v. Wade, reproductive health, and the seemingly-forever-battle for the control of women’s bodies.
So, the question arises: what to do with all this eerie-almost-prophetic soothsaying from Atwood? Well, we write; we ask questions; we research; we think; repeat.
One thing that materializes from all the writing, and asking, and researching, and the thinking is yet another question: why now? Why these adaptations now season 4 drops April 28, 2021; the graphic novel was published in 2019; we have no fewer than three SNL parodies of the show; to say nothing of all the internet fanfic, fan sites and fandom—all for a narrative published 36 years ago?
We’ve moved away from valuing adaptations for their fidelity to the original source text. Instead, we look at adaptations as a measure of now—which leads us to yet a third question: what is all the connecting and reconnecting taking place across the novel, the Hulu series, the 1990 film, and the graphic novel actually measuring? Now, 36 years later?
Details
Your research project begins where the question-asking leaves off, and proceeds in a direction of your own choosing—so long as that direction investigates, researches, and advances an issue-based thesis argument about some topic developed from and inspired by the events of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Note: the LE need not provide an in-depth literary analysis of the novel, or the graphic novel, or the Hulu series, but the essay should make slightly more than a passing reference/nod to the novel—your readers should be confident that you have read the book.
As for shaping your topic, continue in the mode used for the Long Essay précis. Search for sources that aren’t fully in lockstep, so as to generate some interest and stimulate your own thinking on the subject.
You are welcome to fold in discussion of the novel, or the graphic novel (or both) in a fashion that you likely used with the Beloved essay.
Sources: The essay must utilize at least six (6) sources: three (3) sources from the précis assignment, at least 1 additional scholarly source, and 2 other sources. Plan on incorporating three of the sources into your essay and the remaining sources will serve as background for your topic. Any source you use will appear in a separate “Works Cited & Consulted” page at the end of your essay.
Format & Submission
Approximately 10-12 page, double-spaced, 11 or 12 point Times New Roman, Palatino, or Calibri font, with 1-inch margins all-around.
Follow best practices when using evidence and quoted material: quote only to support an assertion/argumentative claim the LE makes rather than quote to demonstrate that you and a source agree on some aspect of your thesis topic.
Provide in-text citations to provide important factual background as necessary, but **not to the exclusion of quoting for rhetorical (argumentative) purposes;
use signal phrasing to cue readers to the coming quoted material, and that the material is not your own;
contextualize that material with respect to its original use, such that the LE clearly articulates how the material pertains to your argumentative claims;
and follow MLA-8 citation conventions for all in-text citations and the LE’s “Works Cited & Consulted” page.
Include the standard header information, single-spaced, in the top left corner of the first page: Name, Date, Assignment, Class, and two (2) word count values: a Quoted Material Word Count, and the LE Total Word Count. Do not include the “Works Cited & Consulted Page as part of either total.
Provide your analysis with an engaging title that conveys some inkling/aspect/touch of your central claim. An engaging title forms the beginning of your argument; it is the point of first contact with your reader.
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