Cultural-environmental Discourse in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

Cultural-environmental Discourse in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale The present article approaches Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, (1985) to incorporate a variety of related discourses that enter into a dynamic relationship with current ecocritical theoretical discourses. In a futuristic society, the pollution of natural world along with the growth of religious fundamentalism results in the sterility of most the members as the manifestation of entropy. It also suggests how the author’s conception of gender-environment connections correspond to the ideas held by ecofeminists. In this story, the patriarchal monopolization over women and nature points out wherever women are degraded, nature is exploited too The specificity of Atwood’s interest in environmental issues creates a symbiotic relationship between nature and culture as connected entities that constantly shape and reshape each other. Generally speaking, this study examines ecological values as well as the ideological vehicles for any position on the interactions in human-environment to reflect how literature participates in and interacts with the entire ecosphere. Atwood’s survived character in the novel is a woman who imagines herself in relation to nature and resists the controlling aspects of culture through narrating her story. Key Terms: Ecocriticism- Ecofeminism-Entropy-Margaret Atwood-Survival.