透過主角兼敘事者奧芙弗雷德 (Offred) 的信件書寫，愛特伍 (Margaret Atwood)《使女故事》(The Handmaid's Tale, 1986) 一書回憶並訴說過往的故事。奧芙弗雷德的敘事打破順時性，呈現了斷裂與曖昧難解的狀況，點出了敘事者對於其所訴說的過去缺乏完整的理解。本論文從創傷敘事的角度分析《使女故事》，試圖探究奧芙弗雷德敘事中缺乏連貫的起因。 本論文分成五章來探討奧芙弗雷德的敘事，以期完整呈現小說中創傷敘事與語言、書信模式所交織成的複雜關係。第一章介紹《使女故事》的梗概與相關評論，並說明本論文所使用的理論架構。第二章以傅柯 (Michel Foucault) 的語言理論，探討語言與權力統治的關係與其在「反烏托邦」(dystopia) 世界中所承擔的角色，進而分析奧芙弗雷德如何一步步地取回了原本被禁用的語言，透過敘事釋放潛藏的溝通慾望。第三章則透過佛洛伊德 (Sigmund Freud) 的創傷理論與後續發展的創傷敘事研究，檢視奧芙弗雷德令人困惑的敘事。第四章藉由巴赫汀 (Mikhail Bakhtin) 的對話論 (dialogism) 分析書信模式在奧芙弗雷德敘事 (narration)／重構 (reconstruction) 中的影響與作用。最後，第五章討論愛特伍在文本末章〈史料〉("Historical Notes") 呈現對書信編輯一角的翻轉，並點出奧芙弗雷德對於敘事的堅持來自於她對於溝通與生存的期望。 / Through the narrator-protagonist Offred's letter-composition, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid’s Tale (1986) unfolds as Offred recalls her past to tell the story. Offred's narrative is not chronological, but elusive and fragmentary. The scattered narrative fragments indicate Offred's incomplete understanding of the past. The present thesis seeks to explore the intricate cause of Offred’s narrative fragments by reading The Handmaid's Tale as a trauma narrative. To gain a full picture of Offred's trauma narrative, the thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter I introduces The Handmaid's Tale and its literature reviews and explicates the theoretical approaches used in the thesis. With the introduction of Foucauldian discourse on language, Chapter II focuses on the role of language in relation to power in dystopia. In addition, the chapter illustrates the process of Offred's gradual regaining of the denied language and embarking on her narrative expedition, seeking to communicate. Meanwhile, Chapter III focuses on Offred’s puzzle-like narrative, inspecting her narrative through the lens of the Freudian trauma theory and trauma narrative. Chapter IV analyzes the function of the epistolary form in Offred's reconstruction of the past with the Bakhtinian dialogism. Finally, Chapter V discusses Atwood's revision of the role of the editor demonstrated in the epilogue "Historical Notes" of The Handmaid's Tale and concludes with Offred's longing for communication and survival that propels her act of storytelling.