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The Handmaid’s Tale

Author: Margaret Atwood
Publication date: 1985
Genre: Fiction Science Fiction 

About the Work

Cover of The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel, a work of science fiction or speculative fiction, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1985. Set in the near future, in a totalitarian theocracy which has overthrown the United States government, The Handmaid’s Tale explores themes of women in subjugation and the various means by which they gain agency. The novel’s title was inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, which is a series of connected stories (“The Merchant’s Tale”, “The Parson’s Tale”, etc.). [Wikipedia]


Challenges in Canada

2008 — In Toronto, a parent formally complained about the use of this dystopian novel in a Grade 12 English class at Lawrence Park Collegiate. The parent said that the novel’s “profane language,” anti-Christian overtones, “violence” and “sexual degradation” probably violated the district school policies that require students to show respect and tolerance to one another.

In 2009, a review panel of the Toronto District School Board recommended that schools keep the novel in the curriculum in Grades 11 and 12.

International Challenges

In March 2006, the superintendent of Judson Independent School District in Texas removed The Handmaid’s Tale after a parent complained that it was sexually explicit and offensive to Christians.

In October 2021, a Republican state lawmaker in Texas sent a letter to the Texas Education Agency urging the removal of 850 books from schools because they might make students feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress.”

Among the list of targeted works was The Handmaid’s Tale.

In November 2021, the Goddard school district in Kansas removed 29 books from school library shelves because the titles were controversial in other states. The Handmaid’s Tale was among these challenged works.

In 2022, parents in Georgia complained that the book was “garbage” in a hearing for Senate Bill 226, a proposal that would allow school principals and teachers to remove books without the consultation of school librarians. The motion was ultimately dismissed, and The Handmaid’s Tale stayed on school shelves.

The book has also faced censorship and bowdlerization outside the United States. As writer Sima Sharifi notes in The Globe and Mail, a Persian translation of the book published in Iran omitted content about feminist activism and featured alterations to the original text.

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