SOURCE: “Control and Creativity: The Politics of Risk in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale,” in Critical Essays on Margaret Atwood, edited by Judith McCombs, G. K. Hall, 1988, pp. 280-91.

In the following essay, Freibert provides an analysis of satire, Western patriarchal stereotypes, and the application of French feminist theory in The Handmaid's Tale. According to Freibert, “In satirizing, and thereby demystifying, Western phallocentrism in the worst of all possible contexts, Atwood also tests the viability of French feminist theory.”

At the end of Lady Oracle (1976) Margaret Atwood's author/narrator declares, “I won't write any more Costume Gothics. … But maybe I'll try some science fiction.” In The Handmaid's Tale (1985) Atwood makes good that promise in what one might call “political-science fiction” but what she calls “speculative fiction.” This boldly political and darkly comic novel illustrates Atwood's grasp of the cultural, historical, philosophical, and literary facets of Western tradition, and...