內容簡介
內容簡介 基列共和國裡,男女階級分明,父權主宰了這個社會的一切。女人被嚴苛的控制著,無法有自主的工作,不能擁有財產,依照剩餘價值被分配擔任不同職務。 「使女」是其一,她們沒有名字,不能閱讀、與人交談,被剝奪情與慾,絕不容許隱密的慾望之花有盛開之機;只是長著兩條腿的子宮,職司和社會領導者大主教交合,以便繁衍下一代。 本書記錄了一名在基列共和國時期擔任「使女」的心情故事。她馴服在權威體制裡,心靈卻自有主張,一步步挑戰禁忌......記錄的年代久遠不可考,但情節之荒誕駭人,卻熟悉莫名地叫人心驚。 這本題材及技巧上都十分「後現代」的作品,作者發揮想像力之極致,掌握時間的線性流動,是過去也是未來。細膩、深刻,在迷人的敘述中反覆辯證人與女人的價值,真實與虛構拉扯,挑戰讀者的閱讀神經。極具藝術性、思想性及可讀性。 《使女的故事》是歐美文學界推崇不已的作品,也是瑪格麗特最廣受討論之書,已被列入重要經典作品中。各大學也都有專門學者及課程研討此書。《使女的故事》續集:《The Testaments》The seminal work of speculative fiction from the Booker Prize-winning author, soon to be a Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss, Samira Wiley, and Joseph Fiennes.Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the days before, when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now.... Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and literary tour de force.
作者介紹
作者介紹 Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, her novels include Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; Oryx and Crake, short-listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize; The Year of the Flood; MaddAddam; and her most recent, The Heart Goes Last. She is the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award, and lives in Toronto with the writer Graeme Gibson. www.margaretatwood.ca