Speculative Fiction's Contribution to Contemporary Understanding: The Handmaid Art Tale.

Margaret Atwood describes her book The Handmaid's Tale (1998) as speculative fiction, because the story she tells takes situations that actually exist to their logical conclusion if the cultural and political momentum of contemporary times continues on its trajectory. Atwood describes that The Handmaid's Tale "is a slight twist on the society we have now" (1998, p. 317). In this novel, the Handmaid states, "Like other things now, thought must be rationed" (Atwood, 1998, p. 8). There was, however, no rationing of thoughts as students in our university classes watched the film, The Handmaid's Tale (Wilson & Schlondorff, 1990), based on Atwood's story (1998, original 1986). The two graduate courses, geographically distant from each other, discussed the film online in spring, 2004. The film generated conversation about the Handmaiden's role in the socialization of knowledge. Knowledge is clearly connected to its cultural contexts in The Handmaid's Tale. The film also served as a catalyst for thinking about art education as a Handmaiden within a patriarchal tradition. The following excerpts from this online dialogue are examples of how the film opened discussion concerning agency within institutional expectations of conformity:The idea of the Handmaid in her silence and struggle to be within the confines of an oppressive dictatorship represents something for me. As an educator, I often find myself seeking desperately to find ways in which I may be true to my own beliefs about learning and my own creative self, while at the same time somehow being accepted within an institution that silently strikes out at anything or anyone who might be seen as not conforming, (student, January 18,2004)You touched on an idea I thought of throughout my viewing of the film ... I kept thinking of how Kate exercised her agency through the (limiting and oppressive) role of the Handmaid. Her "self was not entirely crushed and she seemed to work with the agency and advantages that she could in the situation. I, too, felt that this was like teaching art. (student, January 20, 2004)Atwood describes the culture she creates as a "dystopia," a dysfunctional Utopia. In that narrative, a violent war of ideologies is taking place; the world is divided between a conservative religious culture and guerrilla freedom fighters. The conservative leadership has assigned traditional roles to women including wife, cook, and even courtesan. Due to pollution from nuclear fallout, many wives cannot bear living children. Therefore, a new class of young fertile women has been invented for use in the conservative culture as surrogate wombs. These women are called "Handmaids." If we consider the content and goals of art education from the portrayal of the Handmaiden in art education discourse, we uncover rhetoric that is eerily similar to that of Atwood's tale. Our own speculative account of the Handmaiden considers the struggle for the meaning, goals, and content of art education. We begin our exploration of the Handmaiden in art education discourse by considering graduate students' reflections on her current and potential role in education. We conclude with re-visioning art education as Handmaiden.Handmaiden in Art Education DiscourseWe find references to the "Handmaiden" starting with Stephen Dobbs's dissertation in 1972, and continuing through Stinespring's (2001) publication in Arts Education Policy Arts Review. In such publications, art education is metaphorically gendered female and derided, especially when she "serves as a handmaiden to social studies." Some enduringly support Eisner's stirring comment, "One wonders whether in the end art education will become little more than a handmaiden to the social studies" (1994, p. 190). Eisner makes light of, and essentially denigrates the role of the Handmaiden. Perhaps he has not considered that Handmaidens have gracefully and honorably served as backbone and heart of many types of communities and cultures throughout history. …