historical notes

• historical notes written 1000 years after Offreds account takes place
• The Professor explains the biblical justifications for Gilead's Governance
• the professor remains neutral , instead of trusting Offreds narrative
• the world of Professor Piexoto has developed beyond dictatorship and white supremacy
• Academics mentioned have indigenous American names and world's best universities are in Northern Canada and India - new world order and racial inequality has been abolished
• Gilead's regime based on white supremacist idealogy
• Gilead seen as regressive and barbaric by 2195 standards
• Piexoto despite being an expert on Gilead still makes sexist jokes and comments , suggesting that Gilead's regime is not distant.
• 'Now we are enjoying an equally charming Arctic Chair. I use the word 'enjoy' in two distant sense , precluding, of course, the obsolete third.' - Piexoto makes sexist joke. Enjoys looking at other female lecturer. Sexism and patriarchy still around
• 'We may call Eurydice forth from the world of the dead , but we cannot make her answer; and when we turn to look at her we glimpse her only for a moment, before she slips from our grasp and flee.'

  • Eurydice is a figure from Greek mythology , follows her husband out of the underworld on the condition that he doesn't look back as they make the journey , her husband can't help but look yo his wife and she disappears into the underworld forever
  • Professor making comment about the futility about trying to find answers in Offreds account - erases her narrative
• Atwood has stated her belief that the novel is a vehicle for social change and useful for furthering human understanding
• the inclusion of the historical notes forces us to consider the purpose of history with respect to the purpose of stories
• Atwood satirising a type of historiography that considers facts far more important than narratives
• historians seem willing to listen to Offred's account without attempting to understand her or her experiences
• historian's distance from their belief in the idea of cultural and moral relativism
• Pieixoto reminds his audience that they should know better than to judge Gilead by the standards of their own culture
• Pieixoto points out that Gileadeans created their seemingly barbaric rules to accommodation unique pressures that no longer exist and that contemporary society can no longer fully appreciate their purposes or rationale
• Offered has not been erased from historical narrative - given herself and her Handmaid's immortality
• The fact that they are historical notes makes Offreds story appear trivialised
• A meeting on 'Gileadean studies' suggests that they study the regime and not the experiences of the people who lived through them. People fade and so are forgotten about
• The University name 'Denay,Nunavit' means 'do not deny it' - we should remember the stories of the people