Zheng Jiayin (U0930491A), ADM

L814 Mid-term assignment a book where each phrase is a moment. Each one complete and necessary. Each one is self reliant: completes its work without leaving it up to the following phrase. As if nobody knew whether another would follow - Hlne Cixous If Cixous is to be believed, the implication(s) of her claim is that a book is a paradoxical premise; composed both of phrases that are complete within themselves, and yet part of something else. This would suggest that the book is both a sum of complete totals, and yet never quite just that summation: it is both more and less than its parts at the same time. Please respond to Cixous claim with reference to at least one text (which may or may not be from the course readings).

From Cixous statement, it can be inferred that the act of reading requires one to place most emphasis on the details, because it is from each of these individual features that our understanding of the text is formed. Although a focus on details contains the implication that the big picture is overlooked, Cixous claim suggests, paradoxically, that the holistic reading of a text can only be achieved with an in-depth comprehension of every minor part. This is especially true in fragmented narratives, because our ability to understand and piece together separate segments would then enable us to grasp the overall meaning of the text. Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale is one such example, and in the dystopian novel, we are introduced to the projected theocratic totalitarian future of America through the eyes of the protagonist Offred, a Handmaid whose state-sanctioned function is to bear children in the place of infertile wives. Her narration at first seems confused and jumbled, with Offred not so much telling a single story in a straightforward linear manner, but placing particular emphasis on abstract objects and events. In the space of waiting for the household to assemble, in one instance, Offred thinks, Household: that is what we are. The Commander is the head of the household. The house is what he holds. To have and to hold, till death do us part. The hold of a ship. Hollow. As Offred moves through the different definitions of the word household, each phrase appears to be suspended in a frame of meaning by itself, distinct from one another. But a closer reading would bring to light a progression from merely stating (the official interpretation of household or marriage as one made up of three parties the Commander, Wife and Handmaid), to exposing the nature of such a contrived household hollow. As such, a focus on details would allow the text to be read in its entirety as a literature of resistance against the totalitarian order; and

enable the readers identification of Offred as the primary figure in this resistance as she constructs her counter-reality to the regimes official discourse. A complete understanding of the work only comes with sufficient attention to the time and place of details. In The Handmaids Tale, Offreds storytelling follows no chronological order whatsoever, arbitrarily jumping from memory to reality, from past to present sometimes within the space of a paragraph alone the significance of which we only grasp if we read the supplementary Historical Notes at the back of the book. This section reveals that the whole text is actually a transcript of separate tape recordings that Offred secretly saved, a retrospective account of her experience as a Handmaid after she had escaped from it, hence undermining the immediacy and emotional qualities of her story. Its narrative order has also been decided by historians who rearranged Offreds voice recordings as they saw fit, which then puts the authenticity of her original voice in question. Therefore, a comprehensive reading of the text can only be gained by coming into terms with the reconstructed nature of Offreds narrative. Also, the role of intertextuality makes a book more than merely the sum of its parts. The Handmaids Tale, being grounded upon previous dystopian works such as George Orwells 1984, is no different. The imagined world of the Republic that Atwood creates is based on the literal interpretation of selected passages from the Old Testament, and the text itself reflects the form and style of the monolithic theocracy that early Puritans introduced to America, addressing the dynamics that bring about such a situation. With this knowledge, we would then be able to have more multi-layered insights about the text.