A Woman is a National Resource

Presenter: Olivia Nicosia

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Academic Year: 20-21

Semester: Spring

Faculty Mentor: Sakina Bryant

Department: Philosophy

Funding Source/Sponsor: SYRCE Symposium

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1gmuXhc0F_syCjc7jc3p-dyoFNxE0Yq2C

Abstract:
This project will transport the audience into the final scenes of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The last lines of her novel are extended into an alternate ending where the main character, Offred, escapes the conservative and religious republic that she has been imprisoned in, Gilead. The cause for her seamless escape from Gilead is thanks to a feminist artist who is also the head of the resistence movement, Mayday. She meets and befriends this artist, who shows her the current artistic styles, particularly collaging. Offred decides to try it out and in this, she regains her sense of self. She reconnects with who she is as a person, as a woman. Offred soon realizes that she is, indeed, a National Resource.