Andrew Green on
A level students frequently comment on the Biblical contexts for Atwood's novel, but she directly draws readers' attention to two other literary intertexts as well:
1) Jonathan Swift's satirical essay 'A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick'
2) Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
Do some research into each of these.
In what ways does Swift's essay provide a cruelly ironic context for reading Atwood's tale?
In what ways can ideas of religious pilgrimage and tale-telling adopted from Chaucer contribute to our ideas about the novel?