The Multilayered Subjectivity of Aunt Lydia in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale and The Testaments
Keywords:
Aunt Lydia, Multilayered Subjectivity, Feminist Literary Criticism, Post Feminism, Margaret AtwoodAbstract
This article discusses the multilayered subjectivity and identity of Aunt Lydia in Margaret Atwood’s novels, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and The Testaments (2019). The study aims to reveal the complexity and paradoxical nature of Aunt Lydia’s character through the perspective of feminist literary criticism. The analysis focuses on the intrinsic aspects of identity, subjectivity, and characterization represented through Aunt Lydia, while also examining the extrinsic context related to Margaret Atwood’s perspectives on feminism and social issues. This study employs a descriptive qualitative method and applies feminist literary criticism, particularly poststructuralist feminist theories concerning identity and subjectivity. The findings show that Aunt Lydia is portrayed as a paradoxical figure with multilayered personality traits and subjectivity associated with third-wave feminism and post feminism. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Aunt Lydia is depicted as an anti-feminist figure from a second wave feminist perspective, however, in The Testaments, she is represented as a character with fragmented identities and contradictory subjectivities. Through Aunt Lydia’s characterization, Atwood challenges restrictive feminist categorizations and reject being confined to a single feminist perspective.
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