Book Review: The Handmaid’s Tale

New Resources in TRAILS: The Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology

“…AREA: Stratification/Mobility. I utilize the film The Hunger Games (2012) in my upper-level, Social Stratification course to engage students, help students understand course material, provide an opportunity for students to practice using their sociological imaginations, and develop students’ critical thinking skills (Laz 2020; Walker 2020).…”

“…As Laz (2020:55) noted, modern science fiction is more expansive than that of the past and includes “new themes of gender, sexuality, politics, and religion.” These themes are among those evident in The Hunger Games . Science fiction themes can be analyzed sociologically and connected to other sociological work and lend themselves to various courses (Laz 2020; Walker 2020).…”

Book Review: The Testaments

“…I remember first beginning to regularly read Teaching Sociology at the same time because my curiosity about the usefulness of arts for teaching sociology courses led me to a couple of articles on the topic originally published in the 1990s. In the first case, Cheryl Laz (1996) published an interesting article on the utilization of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (for a review and summary of this novel in relation to contemporary society and teaching sociology courses, see Walker 2020). In this article, Laz outlined some ways science fiction in general and Atwood’s book in particular could be used to bring sociological concepts and theories to life for students and help students apply said concepts and theories to the world around them (see also Gurr 2015).…”

“…In fact, as students of mine noted, the two novels can be read together as a collection of four interviews or case studies of life before, during, and after the creation of a new social order and the ways people make sense of a given society from their specific social locations, especially in terms of sex, gender, and generation, within said society. Further, as Walker (2020) noted, the issues at the heart of these stories—reproductive freedom; sex and gender inequality in society; religious fundamentalism; the marginalization of sexual, gender, and racial minorities; sexual violence and consent; and the freedom of media, arts, and knowledge in society—remain significant political discussions, debates, and conflicts in the world today. As students of mine have stated at different times, much of the social system within Gilead does not require them to use much imagination to recognize because it feels all too possible in the world we inhabit today.…”

“…In sum, a little over a decade since I first read The Handmaid’s Tale as an assigned text in an undergraduate sociology course, it is interesting to think about both how relevant that novel remains for teaching sociology (see also Walker 2020) and also how useful The Testaments could be in any sociology course as either a companion to The Handmaid’s Tale or by itself. Especially as someone who now writes sociology-based novels that are used to teach about LGBTQIA lives, Southern experience, families, and relationships in sociology courses across the United States (see e.g., Sumerau 2017, 2018, 2020), I continue to be fascinated by the ways novels can expand and improve student appreciation for, application of, and engagement with sociological methods, theories, and concepts.…”