Under the ruins of reality Fiction as an escaping strategy (within fictional itself): memory, imagination, and reality in Margaret Atwood’s distopic novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)

Abstract

Analysing the main character’s nocturnal journey (in the seven chapters entitled “Night”), our goal is to draw attention to a process of reconstruction of reality that is similar to fictional creation. Based on both the protagonist's memory or affective memory and on fragments of factual reality, this process provides the main character, up to a certain point in the storyline, with a self-defense mechanism and a (night) shelter from the decaying reality (of the day). However, this mechanism is to be ultimately perverted by the same decay. This analysis will be based on Ricoeur’s concept of utopia as a compensatory distortion of reality, and on the classical example of Don Quixote, without nevertheless directing our reflection towards a comparative study. Finally, we will analyse the success and utility of this strategy as a means of validating an allegorical funtion in the dystopian novel.