From Text To Screen: Adaptation And/or Appropriation Of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale Into The Hulu Series

Résumé: Cinema has always found inspiration in literature through the adaptation of famous literary works into screen. This creative technique is based on the transformation of an artwork into another medium, form or location but this seemingly simple definition implies thorny issues in relation to originality, fidelity, inferiority and authenticity of the adopted texts which very often have to be altered to fit the cinematographic needs and film market. Using the concepts of adaptation and appropriation, this article attempts to study Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and its screening as Hulu series (2017-2022). It aims at comparing the series and its fictional version in order to explore the transformation process made by the showrunner Bruce Miller in addition to its impact on the novel’s narrative, essence and spirit that were reflected by its author to see whether it stands as an appropriation or adaptation.

Publié dans la revue: Aleph