1. Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale continued Student Edition Edited by: Dr. Caroline (Kay) Picart Based on a presentation prepared by Danielle Kotaska Created by Brett Ader

2. Aims To identify what human rights are in conflict in the depictions of these gendered, raced, classed, aged and multi-classified human bodies in the novel and film? To identify who acts to defend and/or deny human rights in the novel and film, in keeping with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to examine how they are represented To discuss in what ways, if at all, this text is pertinent to current study in human rights and the body.

3. What issues from Handmaid’s Tale are relevant to today’s study of Human Rights and the Body in Law? Surrogate Motherhood Violence against women/ “protection” of women’s bodies Equal Rights Amendment

4. Surrogate Motherhood Compare and contrast the socio-politico-legal conditions of being a “handmaid” to the current state of surrogacy.

5. Violence Against Women In Handmaid’s Tale, the government of Gilead justifies the control of women’s bodies by claiming that women are at fault for the violence against them and are unable to protect themselves. Compare and contrast this fictional account with the current state of law regarding women and violence.

6. Movie Vs. Novel What are some major differences between the novel and the film? What are the consequences of these discrepancies?

7. Sexualization Examples? Is sexualization necessary or inevitable?

8. “Plot Smoothing” In the novel, the novel is told nonlinearly and with many interruptions as Offred tries to remember exactly what happened. In the movie, Offred is presented as a reliable narrator and the movie is shown in logical chronological sequence with a few backflashes. How does this change the narrative? Is it better or disruptive of what Atwood was trying to accomplish?

9. Conclusion This is the most obvious and most aggravating change from novel to movie. How does it change? What do you think of this?

10. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. Handmaid’s Tale. Fawcett Crest: New York, 1985. Field, Martha A. Surrogate Motherhood: The Legal and Human Issues. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1988. Friebert, Lucy M. “Control and Creativity.” Critical Essays on Amrgaret Atwood. G.K. Hall & Co.: Boston, 1988. Hewitt, Pamela. “Understanding Contemporary American Culture through Hndmaid’s Tale.” Teaching Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale and Other Works. MLA: NY, 1996. Kirtz, Mary K. “Teaching Literature Through Film.” Teaching Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale and Other Works. MLA: NY, 1996.

11. Equal Rights Amendment As of today, there is still no Amendment to the Constitution which grants women equal rights to men. Is this serious? Consider how quickly rights were taken away from women in Gilead. What was the progression of these removed rights and how were they justified?