Images and words: an analysis of The Handmaid's Tale's novel and series

Abstract

This research has as its object of study the work The Handmaid's Tale (1985), by Margaret Atwood, and its adaptation for television created by Bruce Miller. In this way, the work aims to discuss Hutcheon's adaptation theory (2011), studies on intermediality and cinematographic points of view, in addition to an analysis of silences and the presence of subalternity in the central character of the works. To this end, we intend to investigate, through literary analysis and intermedial analysis, how the narrator-protagonist sees her social position in the current context in which she finds herself, in addition to exposing some intertextualities present in the works. As a methodology for this work, we use a theoretical framework based on the study of literary theory, feminist literary criticism, gender studies and intermedial analyses, such as the studies of Mulvey (1975), to assist in the investigation of subalternity studies we use the contributions from Gayatri Spivak, and we used the work of Oliveira (2020) to analyze the characters’ silences. Thus, we intend to carry out, in addition to an analysis of the profile of the woman who narrates the book and series, The Handmaid's Tales, but also point out how women are subjugated by their specific role in societies, pointing out how the narrative focuses, and cinematographic films provide discussion about the positioning of women inside and outside the works.