OICC Press Journal of New Trends in English Language Learning (JNTELL) 2821-2290 1 1 2022 04 01 The Concept of Identity andSubaltern in Atwood’s TheHandmaid’s Tale 21 26 10.30495/ EN Fatemeh Pourjafari Department of English Language and Literature, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran Journal Article 2022 04 01                      Identity is a contested concept in the presently diverse and multicultural world, and is reflected in the works ofliterature as well. Great numbers of theoretical works have been applied to literary works concerning the issue ofidentity, the most recent of which is postcolonial criticism. Spivak, the prominent figure in postcolonial feministcriticism, mainly concerns her theory with the struggle of the minority (the colonized or the females) against theoppression and injustice of the dominant system of power, which denies them an identity through which, they wouldassert themselves as dynamic agents who can act in history, rather than being acted upon. The aim of this study isto analyze the ways by which the female characters of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, are objectified asgroups rather than individuals, and in Spivak’s words, subalterns who have no voice and their identity is affectedby the ideological system of power. The researcher eventually indicates that the subaltern, though being silenced,would find her own way to assert her subjectivity