Раман Маргарэт Этвуд Гісторыя Служанкі: праблема жанру

Abstract

The article deals with the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by a Canadian writer Margaret Atwood and the problem of genre of the novel. The problem is connected with the complexity of differentiation between such genres and subgenres as anti-utopia, dystopia, science fiction and speculative fiction. In the novel one can mark out the features of classical dystopias. Atwood creates an image of structured totalitarian social system and analyzes the structure of power. The motive of insuperable wall and the motive of escape are used in the novel. The important difference between the novel and classical dystopias is the main character of The Handmaid’s Tale. She is a woman; and it helps the author to raise new questions about the survival of woman in a totalitarian society.